Environmental Education actions, developed by the State of Ceara Department of Education [SEDUC], have contributed to a better coexistence with the semiarid region, main objective of this study. There are several problems faced by local communities attempting to live in the region, such as irregular rainfall patterns. In this context, the paper assumes that SEDUC environmental education policies diverge from the reality of the region. So, programs and projects intended to deal with the problems faced by semiarid regions, specifically in the State of Ceara, have to present a clear proposal for environmental education in a process of formation of the citizen. Methodologically, it is an exploratory research based on official design documents. The main interest for the subject arose from the perception that a contextualized environmental education improves quality of life in semiarid regions. This can be made by an interconnected approach taking into account the main characteristics of local communities and their environment that can produce specific instructions for educational practices that can turn the region more aware of the possible damage caused by immediate and inadequate decisions and policies.


In this work in progress we present an experiment to evaluate our learning object recommendation model. In the experiment, we propose the construction of a bot chat as interface of the recommendation system. The system will recommend programming problems to a group of students based on their behaviors in an online platform of programming problems. The students' development and their motivation to participate will be analyzed to verify the accuracy of our model.


This thesis contains six essays on tests for structural change under long memory with applications to economic time series. Chapter 1 introduces structural change tests and the concept of long memory. The main problem examined in Chapters 2 to 5 is that standard change-in-mean tests are invalid in long-memory time series. Chapter 2 reviews the literature on long-memory robust extensions of standard testing principles for a change in mean. Apart from giving a systematic review, an extensive Monte Carlo study is conducted to compare the relative performance of the introduced methods. Special attention is paid to the interaction the test results have with the estimation of the long-memory parameter. Furthermore, it is shown that the power of self-normalized test statistics can be improved considerably by using an estimator that is robust to mean shifts. Chapter 3 introduces a simple test on structural change in long-memory time series. In contrast to the testing principles introduced in the previous chapter, it is much easier to implement in statistical software and has a limiting distribution that does not depend on the degree of memory. The test is based on the idea that the test statistic of the standard CUSUM test retains its asymptotic distribution if it is applied to fractionally differenced data. It is proven that the approach is asymptotically valid if the memory is estimated consistently under the null hypothesis. Therefore, the well-known CUSUM test can be used on the differenced data without any further modification. In simulations, the proposed CUSUM test on the differenced series is compared with a CUSUM test on structural change that is specifically constructed for long-memory time series. It is observed that the new approach performs reasonably well. The two chapters described previously find that self-normalized tests on change in mean are robust against size distortions in finite samples and that the CUSUM testing principle tends to be the most powerful. Based on these results, Chapter 4 proposes a new family of self-normalized CUSUM tests for structural change under long memory. The test statistics apply non-parametric kernel-based long-run variance estimators and have well-defined limiting distributions that only depend on the long-memory parameter. A Monte Carlo simulation shows that these tests provide finite sample size control while outperforming the competing procedures, which are presented in the previously described chapters, in terms of power. Chapter 5 presents the memochange package which offers implementations of all methods reviewed and proposed in Chapters 2 to 4 in the programming language R. The package


Background: The association between optineurin (OPTN) M98K variant and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) has been widely investigated. However, the results remain controversial among published meta-analyses. Therefore, we conducted an updated meta-analysis to further explore the association between M98K and POAG and its subgroups. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were searched to find all articles describing the relationships between the M98K variant and POAG, which were published from the inception to 31 December, 2019. The associations between M98K and overall POAG, normal tension glaucoma (NTG), high tension glaucoma (HTG), POAG in Asian and non-Asian populations, juvenile open angle glaucoma (JOAG) and adult-onset POAG were evaluated by calculating the pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The Bonferroni correction was used to determine the statistically significant genetic models. Results: A total of 34 eligible articles involving 7,310 POAG patients and 5,173 controls were identified in the present meta-analysis. The articles achieved an average of 6.21 stars for quality assessment by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Evidence from the pooled results indicated significant association between M98K and overall POAG susceptibility under the dominant model (OR =1.30, 95% CI, 1.12–1.52; P<0.001). In the subgroup analyses, no significant associations were found between M98K and the risks of NTG, HTG, JOAG, adult-onset POAG, Asian POAG or non-Asian POAG. Conclusions: The updated meta-analysis revealed that OPTN M98K was significantly associated with the susceptibility to overall POAG. 13


38 J Hong was a tenured professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of CaliforniaIrvine. He had several concerns about his department, chiefly its overuse of adjuncts and temporary instructors. At the time he raised the issue, six out of the eight required courses for the major were being taught by non-tenure track faculty members. When he complained to the administration, his superiors retaliated against him—or at least he thought so. Not only did they deny him a merit raise and increase his teaching load, but they also threatened to revoke his tenure. Hong's internal appeal failed. He turned to litigation, suing the university on the grounds that the Irvine administration had violated his academic freedom. His timing could not have been worse. In the case of Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006) the Supreme Court had just ruled 5-4 against a Los Angeles assistant district attorney who had been sanctioned for complaining about misconduct within the DA's office. According to that decision, the First Amendment did not protect the job-related speech of government employees. For college and university teachers, the overwhelming percentage of whom work for public institutions, the case set a frightening precedent. After all, just about everything a faculty member says or writes is related to his or her job. Garcetti's implications were so ominous, that Justice David Souter, in an impassioned dissent, specifically denounced its threat to academic freedom. The federal judge who handled Hong's case in 2007 cited Garcetti. Ignoring Souter's dissent, he based his decision against the by-then retired Irvine professor on a technicality and, thus, avoided dealing with free speech or academic freedom. Hong appealed. The American Association of University Professors submitted an amicus brief explaining how academic freedom, if it is to be effective, must extend beyond the traditional faculty pursuits of teaching and research to the service activities connected with university governance, and hence to criticism of one's department or administration. The appeals court explicitly ducked the academic freedom issue by relying on the same technicality as the lower court. Juan Hong's case illustrates many of the problems that currently plague our colleges and universities. To begin with, academic freedom is under attack—both in its traditional form as the protection of the faculty's freedom of expression in and Academic Freedom in the Corporate University


The passenger's comfortable air travel experience is receiving more and more attention recently. An analysis of factors affecting the passengers' comfortable air travel experience was conducted based on literature review. This paper explored how these factors to influence passenger's experience, and then brought forward an imperative issue on how to identify the key factors affecting the passengers' comfortable air travel experience. To address this concern involving the vagueness of human judgments, an effective method that combines grey theory and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) was used. A cause-effect relationship diagram and a strategy map showed the causal relationships among factors. Finally, the key factors were figured out. Insights into results from managerial perspective are presented. The future research directions are also introduced in the final section.


The use of telemedicine and digital tools interventions in diabetes care, seems to be a promising alternative to conventional therapy.1‒4 Nowadays, mobile technologies are a very widespread and therefore viable alternative to help keep track of various medical control parameters.4‒8Glucose level control helps reduce the incidence of longterm diabetic complicationsandthe continuous monitoring control of glucose levels is reflected in a decrease in levels and improvement indicators.9‒12 Using the Internet or a phone where the glucosemonitoring data were transferred to web-based, and transmitted medical recommendations by short message, was as effective way for glucose control and other health behaviors.6,13,14Diverse glucose reading devices have their own glucose level display mechanism, the traditional ones show in a monochromatic screen the numerical data of the reading made at that time or the last one made, date and time, some can show a limited history of numerical way; Onetouch, Contour TM, FreeStyle Lite, Accu-Chek, Bayer, to mention brands. An improvement like the FreeStyle Libre and Medisafe Fit Smile devices, they contain a screen that presents the glucose level currently read and a basic graph with previous hours and levels.


We discuss some existence conditions of the Shehu transform, we provide a Plancherel formula and we also relate the Shehu equicontinuity to exponential L2-equivanishing.


We study probe D5 branes in D3 brane AdS_5 and AdS_5-Schwarzschild backgrounds as a prototype dual description of strongly coupled 2+1 dimensional quasi-particles. We introduce a chemical potential for a weakly gauged U(1) subgroup of the theory's global R-symmetry by spinning the D5 branes. The resulting D5 embeddings are complicated by the existence of a region of the space in which the local speed of light falls below the rotation speed. We find regular embeddings through this region and show that the system does not exhibit the spontaneous symmetry breaking that would be needed for a superconductor.


Bioaccumulation is an increasingly important consideration in validation studies of the safety and efficacy of potential drugs. Although an "adipocyte" cell line model has been proven successful to mimic the accumulation of naphthalene in adipocytes, the prolonged incubation time limits its use in high‐throughput studies and reduces reproducibility. In this investigation, naphthalene and naphthol accumulation and uptake kinetics of thin poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) film and lipid nanospheres suspended in a crosslinked gelatin gel (lipid‐gel) were compared with those of adipocytes. Unlike the PDMS film, the lipid‐gel can mimic the kinetics and extent of naphthalene accumulation in the adipocytes reasonably well. However, the lipid‐gel accumulated about twice as much naphthol as the adipocytes, suggesting that hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of the metabolite may be an important factor in the accuracy of accumulation studies with the lipid‐gel. Nonetheless, the lipid‐gel system shows promise as an inexpensive, convenient, and reproducible fat mimic for bioaccumulation studies. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Humoral immune response was studied in broilers against inclusion body hepatutis (IBH) inactivated oil adjuvanted vaccine, and virulent PDRC-1 strain of the IBH virus by using agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). IBH antibody was detected from seventh onwards in IBH vaccinated and infected groups of chickens by both the tests. Infected and challenged groups exhibited strong immune response when compared with the vaccinated group. The immunosuppressed group of chickens infected with IBH virus showed poor developedment of IBH antibody.


Haptic and robotic interfaces are recently gaining momentum to be pervasively integrated in modern everyday life. In fact, they can be employed in several different fields, ranging from manipulation of small and dangerous objects to rehabilitation, assistive and service technologies, and are also integrated in mission critical systems. Modern research is rapidly shifting to investigate novel and more intuitive ways of controlling these interfaces. In particular, gesture-based control is one of the most interesting scenario for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), since we human perceive gestures as a natural way of interaction with the external world. In this work we present a novel architectural pattern, entirely based on the Robotic Operating System (ROS), to support the development of applications and systems where computer vision techniques are applied to control robotic interfaces. As case study, the presented pattern is used to develop and assess the overall PARLOMA system. PARLOMA project aims at developing a system to enable remote communication between deaf-blind subjects. The system is designed to send, remotely and in real-time, messages in tactile Sign Language from a sender to a deaf-blind recipient (or many recipients) by integrating hand tracking and gesture recognition algorithms coupled with bio-mimetic haptic interfaces.


Taking advantage of the computer network system, the control platform of the long distance crude oil pipeline was built. Different working stations in the network were used to simulate the control center of the SCADA system and the control terminals of the pump stations. Off-line simulation software and communication software were developed under the background of the Daqing to Tieling oil transmission pipeline. The visual operating interface which is consistent with the field site was built and the oil pipeline simulation teaching system was set up.


Abstract The Lindenstrauss formula which states a strong relationship between the (Clarkson) modulus of uniform convexity δx of a Banach space X and the modulus of uniform smoothness px* of the conjugate space X*, is well known. Following the idea of the definitions of nearly uniform smooth space by S. Prus and modulus of uniform smoothness we define a modulus of nearly uniform smoothness and prove some Lindenstrauss type formulae concerning this modulus and the modulus of nearly uniform convexity for some measures of noncompactness.


This work investigated the formwork surface characteristics and concrete surface quality. The results showed, release agent types and formwork materials have a great impact on the wettability of formwork/concrete interface, although all the formwork surfaces with/without release agents are hydrophilic. Remarkably inhomogeneous roughness characteristic is only announced with steel formwork. Plywood and steel formworks have almost the same roughness values, however roughness profile of plywood is sharper than it of steel. Mineral oil always correlates to larger surface voids and higher surface void ratio (SVR) values. Steel formwork increases SVR significantly compared to the other two formworks. When SVR <1‰ and small voids (<500μm) >50%, the concrete surface seems to be bughole-free. Rusty stains left by steel formwork aggravates concrete discoloration degree, especially when water-soluble release agents were applied. To improve concrete surface quality, plywood formwork is more favorable despite release agents and vegetable oil based emulsion is more suitable for plastic formwork. The surface area roughness of concretes is mainly determined by it of formworks. The typical micro-groove feature on formwork surface leaves no trace on the formed concrete surface which might be due to the dimension difference between micro-grooves and cement particles and the presence of release agents.


Incorporation of a non-hexagonal ring into a nanographene framework can bring up with new electronic properties. During our attempted synthesis of naphthalene-bridged double [6]helicene and heptagon-containing nanographene by Scholl reaction, an unexpected azulene-embedded nanographene ( 1a ) and its triflyloxylated product ( 1b ) were obtained, which were confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis and 2D NMR spectroscopy. A 5/7/7/5 ring fused substructure containing two formal azulene units is formed, but only one of them shows azulene-like electronic structure. The formation of this unique structure can be explained by arenium ion mediated 1,2-phenyl migration and a naphthalene to azulene rearrangement reaction according to our in-silico study. This report represents the first experimental example of thermodynamically unfavorable naphthalene to azulene rearrangement and may open the opportunity to new azulene-based molecular materials.


As the Bill of Rights prescribed by the South African Constitution stipulates, all people, irrespective of gender, race and religion, have a right to equal opportunities. This is articulated by the Gender Schema Theory as it stipulates that some cohorts of learners are aligned to socially accepted behaviours while other gender aschematic learners perform parallel to socially recognized behaviours. Therefore, all learners are entitled to equal treatment and they have a right to education, especially because South Africa is a country renowned for its rainbow-nation characteristic, allowing it to accommodate diverse citizens. It is for this reason that this paper investigated whether school policy logistics have an impact on gender non-conforming learners in one rural Senior Secondary in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Two teachers were purposefully sampled as participants for this qualitative case study research. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were administered. Using thematic analyses led to the formation of themes which were used to discuss findings. The study found that (i) there are dynamics in policy formulation and also that (ii) there is a violation of school policies. This subjects them to social exclusion and social control that marginalises gender minorities. The study recommends that gender specific school policies be redefined to promote gender neutral and inclusive schools, thus creating societies where everyone is welcome and protected as suggested by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.

Keywords: Policy, Gender, Non-conforming, Diversity.


close the innovations of more than 500 exhibiting companies and organizations in all aspects of the water industry. The ACE06 Exposition is the perfect complement to the annual conference's professional program. From pipes to valves, meters to hydrants, engineering services to tank-related companies, membrane filtration systems to laboratory equipment, security to wastewater—if it relates to water in any way, it will be here!


Abstract The ageing dynamics of a simple model glass are numerically investigated by observing how they occur in the potential energy landscape. Partitioning the landscape in basins of minima of |δV|2, we are able to elucidate some interesting topological properties of the ageing process. The main result is the characterization of the long-time behaviour as jump dynamics between basins of attraction of minima. Moreover we extract some information about the landscape itself, determining quantitatively a few parameters describing it, such as the mean energy barrier value and the mean square distance between adjacent minima.


[1] Interannual variability of sea surface salinity in the northwest tropical Atlantic is investigated in several ocean general circulation model eddy-permitting simulations using different air-sea freshwater forcing. The only simulation able to reproduce some features of the observed variability from 1989 to 1993, in particular in the northwest South American region up to 20°N, east of the Lesser Antilles, is one with no relaxation to a salinity climatology. The model variability results from advection of freshwater originating from the large South American continental shelf river runoff and has a seasonal cycle associated with the displacement of the intertropical convergence zone: Anomalies develop from March to May and then propagate to a larger area within the next months with the horizontal currents (where both geostrophic and Ekman currents contribute). Later on, from July to October, the anomalies are damped through entrainment across the mixed layer base. The vertical diffusion through the mixed layer base does not weaken when anomalously fresh surface water is present (i.e., no barrier layer effect). According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ERA15 reanalysis, air-sea freshwater fluxes have little impact on the large (over 0.5 practical salinity scale) sea surface salinity (SSS) variability in this region. In the model, eddy variability plays little role in the interannual SSS variability, maybe because of inadequate resolution resulting in too weak and too few North Brazil Current eddies.


The invention discloses across the chain transaction between a kind of different license chains, agreement different user has cryptographic assets on different license chains, and they each open an account on another license chain, then different user can carry out transaction in assets by the license chain.It is in the nature:Information passes on mutually between different license chains;By across the chain technology of block chain, by the information MAP of different license chains to same license chain so that these information can interact on same license chain, and ensure the uniformity of result.


1 www.mosaicprojects.com.au This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. For more White Papers see: https://mosaicprojects.com.au/PMKI.php This White Paper outlines one approach to calculating the return on investment (ROI) needed to support the business case for using a structured stakeholder management methodology within a business or project. It is a difficult question to answer accurately because no-one measures the cost of problems that don't occur and very few organisations measure the cost of failure.


Ollier disease, or multiple enchondromatosis, is characterized by multiple, asymmetrically distributed intraosseous cartilaginous masses in the metaphyses and diaphyses of bones. It is rarely associated with neoplasm. We report a 28-year-old woman with a history of Ollier disease, who developed recurrent cerebral anaplastic mixed oligoastrocytoma.


As part of its rehabilitation program, the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, uses reality orientation with confused and disoriented patients. The authors describe reality-orientation techniques and assess the results of the program based on a study of 125 men who participated in it and other rehabilitation activities between 1965 and 1970. Overall, 32 percent of the men improved while 68 per cent remained the same; only one patient regressed.


1 INESC TEC and Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal 2 INESC TEC and Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal 3 Digitópia-Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal 4 Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland Abstract This article provides an overview of the state of the art in research driven towards the modification of the timbral properties of acoustic musical instruments through the use of electromechanical actuators (actuated instruments), allowing for synthetic sound generation to blend with the sound diffusion patterns of acoustic instruments. A selection of acoustic instruments and experimental research representing four Hornbostel-Sachs classes (idiophones, membranophones, chordophones and aerophones) is presented and their nouvelle characteristics and subsequent implementation is discussed, focusing on the techniques employed in the acoustical actuation.


In this paper, we propose to design a circular microstrip patch antenna printed on FR4-epoxy dielectric substrate. The designed antenna will be able to operate for UWB (ultra-wideband) applications. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has approved the use of the frequency spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz for UWB applications. The proposed antenna has a large bandwidth, which covers the frequency band of 3.85-12.38 GHz except the notch band of 5.1-6 GHz, which is the main characteristic of the presented antenna. This feature allows to avoid interferences with applications operating at this band such as WLAN, IEEE 802.11a, and HIPERLAN/2. Besides these characteristics, the designed antenna has a simple structure and small sizes of 24140.8 mm3. The principal operating parameters of the antenna like VSWR, radiation pattern, radiation efficiency, and group delay are simulated using both HFFS and CST electromagnetic simulators. The variation of the group delay of the antenna in the frequency band from 3.85 to 12.38 GHz is almost constant at around 1.25 ns and presents small fluctuations, except in the vicinity of the 5.1-5.8 GHz notch band whose group delay drops from 1.5 ns to – 2 ns. These features make the proposed antenna a better device for UWB applications.


Abstract This paper reviews well-established results from sociolinguistics and social psychology, presents recent results at the interface of the two, and argues that – together – the literature predicts unexplored interactions between non-linguistic behavioural patterns and linguistic variation. It is well documented in sociolinguistics that individuals shift their speech patterns in response to their interlocutors and environment, and that this can sometimes be quite subtle and automatic. That is – speech can be affected by environmental primes. We explore the degree to which speech may also act as a prime. Results from the social psychology literature suggest that linguistic choices should have consequences for our non-linguistic behaviours (such as claimed attitudes, or physical movements). Behavioural experiences throughout our lives might also shape and influence our linguistic repertoires. We present a range of literature related to this question, and present some preliminary evidence that speech can indeed act as a behavioural prime.


Named Entity Recognition (NER) is a clue task to improve automatic text processing, which is needed in a diverse variety of applications. NER techniques vary from hand-craft rules to machine learning approaches. As a human opting for a supervised learning algorithm, it is often difficult to choose the optimal machine learning (ML) model for a classification problem. Automated ML (AutoML) aims at automatically selecting, composing, and parameterizing machine learning algorithms in order to obtain optimal performance for a given task (dataset). In this paper, we apply an approach based on Tree-based Pipeline Optimization Tool (TPOT). This method uses genetic programming based on the tree structure to find the model and its hyperparameters that more closely predicts the class of Arabic named entities in the text comes from social media. The structure and parameters are fine-tuned to achieve the optimum performance of the machine's learning pipeline. Our method outperforms strong baselines. It reaches a novel state-ofthe-art in the NER task.


SummaryThe effects of 14 meV monoenergetic neutrons were compared with those of 300 kV x-rays. Cell survival data were used to compute dose-response curves from which values of oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) and relative biological effectiveness (RBE) have been derived. The OER for HeLa cells was 1·51 with neutrons and 2·39 with x-rays; giving a gain factor of 1·58. The RBE for HeLa cells varied between a value of 4·3 at the 90 per cent level of cell survival to 2·3 at the 3 per cent level. The RBE can be assumed to fall to a constant value of 1·95 at lower levels of survival. A constant value of 1·9 was determined for the RBE for P388F mouse lymphoma cells.


The highway spoil ground used for resident settlement areas is one of utilizations of spoil ground,and analysis and evaluation for its stability are important part to guarantee the security of resident settlement areas.This paper,taking the spoil ground on the left of K37+500 at the entrance of Guangyi Tunnel in bid AT8 of Guizhou Shuidu section on Xiamen—Chengdu Expressway as an example,analyzes and evaluates the stability and bearing capacity,etc.of the spoil ground used for resident settlement areas,and proposes recommendations for issues when the spoil ground is used for resident settlement areas.


Statement of problem: Implant-supported prosthodontics is considered the main key and the most important factor regarding the success/failure of dental implants, in order of that, it has to have the majority of focus in this study. Purpose: It aims to evaluate the clinical and the radial performance of the posterior implant supported fixed prosthodontics that had been made in Damascus University Faculty of Dentistry. Materials and Methods: the study sample consisted of 100 posterior implant supported fixed metal ceramic prosthodontics which had been made for the reviewer's patients in the fixed prosthodontics section in Damascus University Faculty of Dentistry. Marginal adaptation had been evaluated during the cementation session according to (USPHS) standards, plaque index and gingivitis index had been also evaluated during the cementation session using a plastic periodontal probe that is specially made for dental implants, the values were registered according to Loe index (1967), periodontal probing depth had been evaluated and the values were registered in millimeters, it was done using the periodontal probe in the cementation session. Lastly the prosthesis adaptation and the bone lose were radially evaluated using plastic film holders (Vatic) to make a radiogram using the paralleling technique in the cementation session and all measurements were revaluated after 6 months of the cementation. Data analysis was done with Wilcoxon test and Rank Biserial test for study correlation at significance level of (α=0.05). Results: all of the prosthodontics that were included in this study have had the evaluation Alfa according to (USPHS) standards. The substantial difference was statistically between the two observation periods included the gingivitis index and the periodontal probing depth index (p < 0.0005). Rank Biserial test has shown that there is a statically substantial positive moderate connection between the periodontal probing depth and bone lose. Conclusions: according to this study we conclude that the continuance rate of the posterior implant supported fixed metal ceramic prosthodontics is 97%, and the gingivitis index, periodontal probing depth and bone lose were at the clinically accepted values during the evaluation session after 6 months of the cementation.


This paper describes the investigations which were undertaken to understand the sand transport patterns around the Gold Coast Seaway entrance as part of a larger study to improve the performance of the existing sand bypassing system. Historical monitoring surveys were analysed and two dimensional wave propagation, hydrodynamic and sediment transport modelling was used to indicate the pathways and rates of the sand movement in this complex area.


Resistance spot welding is a widely used jointing technique during the process of automobile body assembly.The efficiency of spot welding process under continuous work conditions is depended on the electrode life which is related with the effect of water cooling.The fluent flow of cooling water in the cooling cavity has been simulated by using numerical simulation method.Analysis about heat convection and cooling effect of electrode have been performed as the base for the further researches of the increasing of cooling effect and the extending of electrode life.


At the power supply of the low-voltage asynchronous motors (with homogeneous yokes) from the network, shaft currents resulting in damage of bearings, can emerge. The main cause of these currents is the eccentric position of rotor in the stator bore (static and dynamic eccentricity). The required condition for the emergence of these current in nonlinearity of magnetizing curve of electrical steel of the motor stack lamination. The article describes perfomed measurements on the four-pole motor. First, the measuring equipment: Rogowski coil and his mounting, AD converter NI- DAQPad-6015 and power analyzers NORMA-D6000 have been described. Then, ways of measurements and processing and processing of measurements have been explained. Data obtained by measurements have been presented at the nominal load, for the star- and delta-connected stator winding, measured with AD converter NI-DAQPad-6015 and power analyzer NORMA-D6000. Differences in measured results of shaft currents measured by the power analyser NORMA-D6000 related to measurements with the AD converter NI-DAQPad-6015 are explained.


In this paper, we consider a transmission problem in the presence of history and delay terms.Under appropriate assumptions, we prove well-posedness by using the semigroup theory. Our stability estimate proves that the unique dissipation given by the history term is strong enough to stabilize exponentially the system in presence of delay by introducing a suitable Lyaponov functional.


Field experiment of wheat intercropped faba bean was conducted.The results showed that:intercropping improved N uptake of wheat in wheat and faba bean intercropping system.Nitrogen uptake advantage of intercropping and broad-row effect were apparently when low nitrogen fertilization was applied,and intercropping improved wheat nitrogen uptake 2.33%~44.88%,broadrow effect was 3.49%~66.66%.Intercropping advantages were disappear when high fertilizations applied.With increasing of the amount of nitrogen applied,N content of wheat increased,while applied potassium fertilization could not improve nitrogen uptake of wheat.Intercropping and various nitrogen levels could not affect potassium uptake,while potassium uptake of wheat was increased after applied potassium fertilization.Occurrence of wheat rust was decreased in wheat and faba bean intercropping system.,averagely decreased 22.2%~100%;and decreased 46.15%~59.1% after applied potassium fertilization.There was significantly qositive correlation ship between nitrogen content of wheat and occurrence of wheat rust,r=0.747~(**) ~0.7822~(**),but there was not correlation ship between potassium content of wheat and occurrence of wheat rust.


The paper proposes a solution to realize agile scheduling optimization of logistics based on semi-hierarchical control mechanism for the two difficult problems happened in the process of logistics scheduling optimization, and constructs a semi-hierarchical control model for agile scheduling optimization of logistics under the semi-hierarchical control mechanism. For one applied example, according to the control mechanism of the model, the paper proposes a vehicle loading optimization model and analyzes how to solve it. The result shows that the solution can achieve a high loading rate under the condition of considering agile scheduling priority rules.


Helical groove seals are non-contacting annular seals used in pumps and other rotating machinery to reduce the flow of working fluid across a pressure differential. These seals have continuously cut grooves, like the threads of a screw, across the surface of the rotor, the stator, or both surfaces. They function to reduce the flow of working fluid by two physical mechanisms. First, fluid traveling in the axial direction dissipates kinetic energy as it expands in the grooves and then is forced to contract in the jet stream region between the grooves. Second, the fluid within the grooves is displaced toward the high pressure region through the pumping action of the helical grooves. In multistage pump design, it is now common to use helical groove seals with grooves on both the surface of the rotor and stator where the grooves are opposing in direction. That is, the case where the grooves on the rotor pump towards the outlet, but the grooves on the stator pump towards the inlet. Despite this being the industry standard, no data in the literature exist that suggests that this design is better than other possible double surface helical groove seal configurations. This work examines the conditions in which each configuration of double surface helical groove seals is preferable. To accomplish this, simulations are run using ANSYS CFX for a variety of operating conditions for each configuration. The operating conditions varied are pressure differential and rotor speed. The baseline design of this data is a validated against experimental results from the literature showing the performance of opposing groove direction helical groove seals. This paper also discusses the validity of the multi-reference frame steady-state setup that can be used to efficiently simulate these seals. Finally, this study presents discussion and conclusions of the preference to opposing direction helical groove seals based on the flow mechanisms of the seal configurations. This work will form the basis of future work designing computationally efficient analysis tools to analyze these double surface helical groove seals, which are already widely used but lack computational analysis tools.


With the circuits using metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) capacitor, rf operational signal properties are almost the same or superior to those of polysilicon-insulator-polysilicon, metal-insulator-metal, and metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors. In electronic product code global class-1 generation-2 uhf radio-frequency identification (RFID) protocols, the MFM can play a crucial role in satisfying the specifications of the inventoried flag's persistence times (Tpt) for each session (S0–S3, SL). In this paper, we propose and design a new MFM capacitor based memory scheme of which persistence time for S1 flag is measured at 2.2 s as well as indefinite for S2, S3, and SL flags during the period of power-on. A ferroelectric random access memory embedded RFID tag chip is fabricated with an industry-standard complementary MOS process. The chip size is around 500×500 μm2 and the measured power consumption is about 10 μW.


A 2-phase S-VHS compatible 720(H) × 576(V) FT-CCD imager with on-chip drivers, designed for compact, low-cost applications, is presented. Important new features are: 2-phase image, storage and serial clocks for low pin count, on-chip image and storage clock-drivers and 3.3V clock swing for the serial register. All essential sensor characteristics such as optical sensitivity, highlight handling, electronic shutter, efficient transport, etc. are maintained. The on-chip drivers allow high-speed frame shift for low-smear operation without mechanical shutter. The pixel size of this 1/4'' imager, meant for consumer applications, is 5.1(H) × 9.4(V) ¿m2. The maximum charge capacity is approximately 33 000 electrons. The use of on-chip level-shifters/drivers has a considerable impact on the operation of the new device. 3-D transient simulations were essential to optimize the CCD performance, and circuit simulations were used in the design of the drivers.


Fluid flow networks (FFNs) are commonly existed in industrial complexes such as the water distribution and mine ventilation systems. Flowrate and pressure control is crucial for the safe, stable and efficient operation of FFNs. Based on giving a nonlinear state-space model for control design, an adaptive distributed flowrate-pressure control strategy taking the simple proportional-integral (PI) form is proposed in this paper, which not only provides globally input-to-state stability (ISS) but also need no values of the network physical or hydraulic parameters. Then, this control law is applied to the module-coordination of a multi-modular nuclear plant based upon the high temperature gas-cooled reactor, and numerical simulation results show the feasibility and satisfactory performance of this newly-built FFN stabilizer.


Over the past 13 years, the Sexuality and Development Programme [1] at the Institute for Development Studies [2] has been developing a portfolio of evidence from scholars, activists and practitioners around the world to challenge the inadequate treatment of sexuality in development theory and practice. Authors from a range of backgrounds and disciplines have questioned the assumption that sexuality is not a development issue and have introduced new ways of understanding the links between sexuality, poverty and citizenship.


Objective To analyze the association between β2-AK 27 locus genetic polymorphisms and asthma, and the protective effect in airway hyperreactivity. Methods The allel polymerase chain reaction were used to determine β2-AR 27 locus genetic polymorphisms in 149 patients with cough variant asthma who have the airway hyperreactivity. To observe these people for two years in order to know the proportion of changed to typical asthma. And compare with 90 people in healthy group. Results (1) The distribution frequency of β2-AR 27 locus genetic polymorphisms is major in heterozygote (57 % ) , and the Glu/Glu homozygote has the least ( 20% ) , (2) There was a significant decrease in the frequency of Glu/Glu genotype in asthmatics compared with healthy group(9% VS 20% ) ,OR = 0.4(P<0.05) ,95% CI (0.2 ~0. 9) ,but there was no significant difference in the allele frequency of asthmatics compared with healthy group,(3)The frequency of Glu/Glu genotype in severe asthma was lower than stable asthma group(P<0. 05). Conclusion These results suggesteded that β2-AR 27 locus genetic polymorphisms is correlated with asthma,and the Glu27 could have the protective effect to the airway.

Key words:
Asthma; Receptors,adrenergic,beta-2; Polymorphism,genetic


The author proceeds from the fact that to the established characteristics of human age (for example, absolute, conditional, subjective) there are serious reasons to add such a characteristic ISSN 2414-0244 Научно-периодический журнал «Здоровье человека, теория и методика физической культуры и спорта». 2020. No 2 (18). Health, Physical Culture and Sports. 2020, 2(18) Раздел IV. Научные статьи по итогам Международной конференции Section IV. Scientific Articles Following the International Conference 281 as moral ability. If we do not begin to bring it to bureaucratic extremes of digitalization, it would help us build relationships more and more life-affirming and culturally.


The need to analyze and store extreme amounts of data has led several large companies to develop new forms of data storage systems with characteristics that create new opportunities in the world of databases but require the developer to pay attention to some unconventional design models. This report looks at contemporary implementations of non-relational databases in conjunction with application development. With knowledge of its properties this report tries to illustrate how to apply the new technologies in a timely manner.


Summary: Coeliacdiseaseis exacerbatedbywheatgluten. A reviewofmethodsforthepurification,identification andquantitation ofwheatproteins to investigate coeliac disease is presented.Recent developments including amino acid sequencing and expression ofwheat protein peptides inE. coli should permit characterization ofthe cereal peptide that exacerbates coeliac disease.IntroductionCoeliac disease first mentioned by Gallen was des-cribed by Samuel Geein 1888' as a wasting diseaseassociated with oatmeal porridge-like stools thataffected both children and adults. Thepathology ofthesmallintestinewasfirstnotedbyPaulley2andlaterdescribedbyShiner&Doniach.3Theprincipalabnor-malityisalossofthenormalvillousarchitectureofthesmall intestine. Early treatment of the conditionincluded Hass's use ofthe bananadiet.4 However, itwas not until Professor Dicke's observations that itbecameclear that a cereal-free diet could be used totreat the disorder.5 Substances that were found toexacerbatecoeliacdiseaseincludedwheat,rye, barleyandpossibly


The Lisbon Treaty stipulates that the functioning of the European Union will be based on representative democracy. The main bearers of representative democracy should be political parties, in this case European political parties. Therefore, the subject of this paper is the position of European parties in the political system of the European Union. The basic question is whether the Europarties are able to contribute to the democratic functioning of the political system of the European Union and thus build their recognizable identity. If we take into account the existing constitutional order of the European Union and the place of political parties in it, it is obvious that they are not able to contribute to forming European political awareness and to expressing the political will of the Union citizens.


A disparity map is usually obtained by stereo images using a stereo matching method. Edge boundaries in the disparity map separate two different objects. Therefore, edge preservation is one of important issues in the stereo matching method. A conventional distance transform was proposed to preserve edge boundaries in the disparity map. However, this method has a complexity problem because of its iterative calculation. To reduce the calculation complexity, we propose a modified distance transform. Another important issue in the stereo matching method is an occlusion handling. We improve the quality of occlusion regions using disparity values of neighboring pixels. We apply the occlusion handling method to the edge preserved disparity map. Experiment results show that the proposed method is faster than the conventional method with a small loss in bad pixel rates.


It is essential to consider geometry in the early design stage for rational design decisions. However, a crucial decision had been taken by conversation, physical model, and gesture rather than BIM model. This research proposes the framework of interactive design method for dynamic decision making and focused on facade design among the design objects. This is implemented as a way to install sensor, actuator, and server in the physical facade model for the communication system between virtual model and physical model. Real-time data is collected on the server from the sensor and actuator. It gives back to the actuator and moves in the facade model through server.


Since the dawn of the space age, software has always been a critical aspect for any space mission launched. Over the decades, more complexity, autonomy and functionality was added to both unmanned and manned missions, yielding in an exponential growth of the lines of codes used in space projects over the years. Although a lot of effort was put into ensuring reliable software on those missions, some of them failed. Still, as the space industry is a risk-averse business, testing of novel approaches in space programs cannot be done on large scale. To overcome this limitation, this paper investigates the potential use of MicroPython, an implementation of Python for constrained systems, for use on CubeSats by analyzing the language and tools in practical examples from the MOVE-II CubeSat project.


Lightweight bead-treated soil made from dredged silt is a new type of lightweight geo-materials(LGM).The meso-cracks in lightweight bead-treated specimen are found to generate from the interface between expanded poly-styrene(EPS) beads and solidified soil particles.With the additive amounts of cement and beads of EPS,the Mohr-coulomb envelope curve of the lightweight bead-treated specimen has two types:folding line and straight line.Different from natural soils,the damage of cementation should be considered in the strength mechanics of lightweight bead-treated soil.


A method of recognizing an object shape using a liquid crystal display device, a display system, and a liquid crystal display device is provided. A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel for displaying an image, a first light source disposed at a lower portion of the liquid crystal panel for providing light to the liquid crystal panel, a first diffusion disposed between the liquid crystal panel and the first light source, A second light source disposed at a lower portion of the liquid crystal panel to emit a sensing signal for recognizing the shape of an object positioned on the liquid crystal panel toward the liquid crystal panel, and a sensor disposed in the liquid crystal panel or below the liquid crystal panel do. Here, the sensing signal reflected on the object can be sensed by the sensor without passing through the first diffusion member. Liquid crystal display, infrared sensor, touch screen panel


In order to appraise the utility of self-potential (SP) measurements to characterize fractured reservoirs, we carried out continuous SP monitoring using multi Ag-AgCl electrodes installed within two open holes at the Kamaishi Mine, Japan. The observed ratio of SP change to pressure change associated with fluid flow showed different behaviors between intact host rock and fractured rock regions. Characteristic behavior peculiar to fractured reservoirs, which is predicted from numerical simulations of electrokinetic phenomena in MINC (multiple interacting continua) double-porosity media, was observed near the fractures. Semilog plots of the ratio of SP change to pressure change observed in one of the two wells show obvious transition from intermediate time increasing to late time stable trends, which indicate that the time required for pressure equilibration between the fracture and matrix regions is about 800 seconds. Fracture spacing was estimated to be a few meters assuming several micro-darcies (10-18 m2) of the matrix region permeability, which is consistent with geological and hydrological observations.


Abstract : The MAGTF is a vital asset to the United States. It provides the joint force commander a capability that is used to achieve the operational and strategic objectives for our nation. Marine aviation is a critical component of the MAGTF and plays a role in every area of operation, in every mission, and in every level of conflict. Without Marine aviation there is no MAGTF. The integration of the air-ground team provided by the MACCS is what produces the synergy of the MAGTF.


SUMMARY The current paper presents information from a survey of the practices associated with the control of ectoparasites on sheep in Northern Ireland in 2005, including the estimated total quantities of pesticide active ingredients used. It also provides comparative data to that obtained from previous surveys in 1981 (Jess & Marks 1986), 1988 (Foy et al.1995) and 1997 (Jess et al.2000). The total number of sheep farms in Northern Ireland decreased by 25% to 8822 farms with a consequent 26% reduction in total sheep population to 2·1 million sheep compared with the previous survey in 1997. During this period, the number of sheep treated for ectoparasites decreased by 40%. The total quantity of organophosphorus (OP) compounds used for ectoparasite control decreased by approximately 67%, from 7·8 tonnes in 1997 to 2·6 tonnes in 2005, during which an estimated 0·38 of all sheep treated for ectoparasites received the OP active ingredient diazinon. The survey results indicate a decline in the practice of plunge-dipping sheep for ectoparasite control with the proportion of farms using this treatment method decreasing from 0·58 to 0·16 between 1997 and 2005. In 1997, an estimated 0·8 of all sheep treated for ectoparasites in Northern Ireland were plunge-dipped, which reduced significantly to 0·28 during 2005. Conversely, the use of alternative methods has increased with pour-on formulations of insecticides, macrocyclic lactones and growth regulators being applied to 0·33 of all sheep treated in 2005 compared with 0·09 in 1997. Use of intramuscular or subcutaneous injections of macrocyclic lactones for ectoparasite control has also increased to 0·24 of all sheep treated in 2005 compared with 0·1 in 1997. The proportion of sheep treated in communal spray showers also increased from 0·01 in 1997 to 0·14 in 2005. Control of blowfly maggots (Lucilia spp.) and prevention of sheep scab (Psoroptes ovis) were the main reasons given by farmers for sheep treatments. On the farms that plunge-dipped, an estimated 0·68 of surplus dip wash was disposed of immediately after dipping took place, with 0·8 of farms emptying the dipping tanks using a vacuum tanker and 0·54 spreading the surplus dip wash directly onto land. An estimated 0·35 of these farmers mixed the dip wash with slurry pre-disposal. The survey suggests that the products used for spray showers are those recommended for plunge-dipping as there are no contemporary products recommended for use in spray showers. Macrocyclic lactone injections recorded in the survey had the dual function of controlling both endo- and ectoparasites.


Synopsis Polycarbonate parts for railway track fastenings fractured when they are continuously subjected to the stress in the condition of contacting with water-proof oil components. In this paper, the cause of the fracture has been studied. For the analysis, New C-type Creep Method established by the author is used taking S.S.C. Creep Index as a measure. The reason why polycarbonate fractured in the railway track was synergistic effect by the actions among DMP, glycol and the corrosion inhibitor (ether type) for the polymer, combined with the interaction between the stress and these reagents.


The closest string problem is an NP-hard problem, which arises in computational molecular biology and coding theory. Its task is to find a string that minimizes maximum Hamming distance to a given set of strings. In this paper, a compounded genetic and simulated annealing algorithm (CGSA) which combines the merits of genetic algorithms and simulated annealing is presented to solve CSP. An adapting two-point crossover operator and a heuristic gene mutation operator designed by us are used in CGSA. In addition, by analyzing the optimal solution's structural features some rules are designed to pretreat the data, which reduces the problem size. We report computational results which show that the CGSA is capable of finding good solutions in a reasonable amount of time.


This paper investigates the application of machine learning when training a credit decision model over real, publicly available data whilst accounting for"bias objectives". We use the term"bias objective"to describe the requirement that a trained model displays discriminatory bias against a given groups of individuals that doesn't exceed a prescribed level, where such level can be zero. This research presents an empirical study examining the tension between competing model training objectives which in all cases include one or more bias objectives. This work is motivated by the observation that the parties associated with creditworthiness models have requirements that can not certainly be fully met simultaneously. The research herein seeks to highlight the impracticality of satisfying all parties' objectives, demonstrating the need for"trade-offs"to be made. The results and conclusions presented by this paper are of particular importance for all stakeholders within the credit scoring industry that rely upon artificial intelligence (AI) models as part of the decision-making process when determining the creditworthiness of individuals. This paper provides an exposition of the difficulty of training AI models that are able to simultaneously satisfy multiple bias objectives whilst maintaining acceptable levels of accuracy. Stakeholders should be aware of this difficulty and should acknowledge that some degree of discriminatory bias, across a number of protected characteristics and formulations of bias, cannot be avoided.


Due to the growing number of elderly people and the gap in the existing knowledge about their dietary behaviour, the need for studies investigating food habits and nutritional status of this group is well recognised. A cross-sectional study using qualitative and quantitative methods was designed to investigate factors that influence the food choice and to assess the nutritional status of elderly people living freely on Merseyside. Eighty elderly people, 39 men (mean age 73.9 years) and 41 women (mean age 74.7 years) were recruited randomly from the Family Practice Register. Respondents were divided into, younger elderly (65-74 years) and older elderly (75 years and over). Age and sex related influences on food choice and nutritional status were explored. Taste was the most important factor of food choice for the whole group, followed by familiarity for older elderly and healthy choice for younger elderly people. Women exhibited greater nutritional awareness and knowledge than men and were the main decision-makers regarding dietary behaviour of the household. Food choice was least likely to be influenced by advertisement; the media however was quoted to be the most important source of nutritional information. Younger elderly respondents were seen to be more flexible to introducing dietary changes and the older elderly were more traditional in their dietary habits. The mean reported energy intake of women (6.1 MJ) was significantly lower than that of men (7.3 MJ) (P= 0.000) and was well below the recommended levels of intake for elderly people. Men were more likely to under-report energy intake than women and the level of dietary under-reporting was significantly lower in older elderly than in younger elderly respondents (P=0.04). The levels of total dietary fat as a percentage of total energy (34.3%) were desirable, however the saturated fat intake of the group was higher than the recommended 13% of total energy intake. With more than 21% dietary energy contributed by sugars, the nutrient diluting effect of sugar was observed by a concomitant low intake of NSP and lower than recommended intakes of retinol equivalents, vitamin D, folate, iodine and selenium for all and calcium for women. Based on the BMI (26.4 for men and 27.0 for women), although the majority of the respondents were overweight, the prevalence of obesity was low. Women had significantly higher percentage of body fat (23.6%) than men (9%) (P=0.000) and this was mainly due to propensity of peripheral fat deposition in women. Men had greater tendency to central fat deposition (mean waist circumference men 93.4 cm, women 89.2 cm). With a waist circumference of 96.3 cm younger elderly men were most vulnerable to health risks of central adiposity. Thirty five percent of the respondents had untreated hypertension and younger elderly men were more likely to suffer from mild hypertension than any other group. The nutritional status of the elderly respondents was inadequate to provide required dietary energy and a number of essential nutrients. The group would however benefit from tailored dietary advice targeting younger and older elderly people. They would also benefit from increasing total dietary energy intake, regular monitoring of blood pressure and supplementation with folate and vitamin D.


Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT), which catalyses the intracellular formation of cholesteryl esters, plays an important role in the intestinal absorption of cholesterol, foam cell formation within the arterial wall and may be very low density lipoprotein production in the liver. Therefore, the inhibition of ACAT as treatment for hypercholesterolaemia and atherosclerosis is an attractive target. Indeed, many of the ACAT inhibitors have shown potent hypocholesterolaemic and anti-atherosclerotic effects in various experimental animal models. Despite initial failures to show efficacy in humans, several ACAT inhibitors are now under clinical evaluation. The results obtained from these clinical studies should help to determine the future of ACAT inhibitors as hypocholesterolaemic and anti-atherosclerotic agents.


I. The Institutional and Political Context 1. An Introduction to Mission CreepGordon Adams and Shoon Murray2. The Institutional Imbalance of American StatecraftGordon Adams3. Civil-Military Roles in Post-Conflict Stabilization and ReconstructionJames Dobbins4. From Confrontation to Cooperation: Weak States, Demanding Allies, and the US Military Derek S. Reveron 5. Congress and the Politics of Defense and Foreign Policymaking: Big Barriers to BalanceCharles B. Cushman, Jr. II. Observing the Militarization Trend 6. Soldiers in SandalsG. William Anderson and Connie Veillette 7. Foreign Assistance in Camouflage: Measuring the Military Security Cooperation RoleNina Serafino 8. Who Tells America's Story Abroad? State's Public Diplomacy or DoD's Strategic Communication?Brian E. Carlson9. Combatant Commanders, Ambassadorial Authority, and the Conduct of Diplomacy Shoon Murray and Anthony Quainton 10. Military Advice for Political Purpose Sharon K. Weiner 11. The Military, the CIA, and America's Shadow Wars Jennifer Kibbe III. Implications of Militarization 12. The State Department: No Longer the Gatekeeper Edward Marks 13. Conclusion: Does Mission Creep Matter? Gordon Adams References Contributors


A significant problem in laser cooling of molecules is the presence of the dark Zeeman sublevels. Herein, a detailed theoretical and experimental study of destabilizing the dark states is reported in magnesium monofluoride molecules. By applying an external magnetic field, the Zeeman sublevels are made to be time dependent and nondegenerate, forcing the dark states to Larmor precess into the bright states. It is found that the laser induced fluorescence signal depends on the angle and the magnitude of the magnetic field. Theoretical calculations are performed by solving the density matrix equations for the multiple-level system, which shows good agreement with experimental data. This study may provide a useful perspective for continuous efforts toward laser cooling of MgF molecules.


Theoretical controversies between Russian theoriests and western scholars in studies of Marx gave rise to research on Engels. Since 1970s, the author observed, the research on Engels by scholars of Marxism in the west has experienced three stages of development. The author holds that we should evaluate objectively the achievements of researches on Engels by western scholars of Marxism and do them justice. Meanwhile, care should be taken to keep on guard (against) some of their serious defects.


Determinant of Financial Performance on Banking Companies Listed In Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI). This study aims to analyze the effect of LDR, CAR, NPL and BOPO on ROA at a Banking company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The population used in this study is a Banking company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange which provides the required data with a period of time research conducted during 3 years of observation that is 2013-2015 years. After passing the purposive sampling method , the sample that is suitable to be used in this research is 36 Companies listed on BEI. The results of this study indicate that LDR, CAR, NPL and BOPO variables simultaneously have a positive and significant effect on ROA with coefisein value of 13.479 and sig value 0.00 <0.05. Partial test results indicate that LDR, CAR, and NPL variables have no significant effect on ROA seen from a significant level greater than α = 0.05 ie LDR of 0.932, CAR of 0.734 and NPL of 0.190. While for the variable BOPO partially have a negative effect on ROA with coefesien value of -0.816 with a significant level of 0.00 is smaller than α = 0.05. For the  value of R 2 (R square)of 0.666 or 66.6%, this shows that the percentage of variable contribution LDR, CAR, NPL and ROA to ROA dependent variable amounted to 66.6%. While the rest of 33.4% influenced by other variables outside this study.


One of the impressions in the literature on children's social anxiety is that young (preadolescent) children are not socially anxious and that social anxiety begins to manifest itself at adolescence and then increases with age. However there seems to be little direct research evidence to substantiate this claim. A questionnaire to assess feared outcomes in children and adolescents was therefore administered to 1415 children between the ages of 6 and 16 years. The results showed that worry about social threat did not increase with age and the content of the feared social outcomes also remained relatively constant over the age span.


Purpose: Ewing sarcoma (ES) is the second most common malignant bone sarcoma in children and young adults. Current treatment for Ewing sarcoma includes a combination of cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents and local control with radiation and/or surgery. The survival rate of those with Ewing sarcoma has seen very little improvement over the past several decades and remains dismal for those with recurrent or metastatic disease. The purpose of this study is to identify novel agents currently available for use in Ewing sarcoma.
 Methods: Novel targeted approaches for the treatment of ES were identified using RNA sequencing performed on 15 ES patient derived cell lines with bioinformatic analysis of gene expression. Targeted agents were tested on patient cell lines at escalating doses. At 48 hours cell viability was assessed with CellTiter-Glo 2.0 and analyzed with GraphPad Prism to determine the IC50. At 24- and 48-hours western blot analysis was performed to evaluate the effect on cell cycle and apoptosis. Combination studies with standard chemotherapy were performed to evaluate for synergy using SynergyFinder 2.0.
 Results: RNA analysis identified HDAC2, ALK and JAK1 as a potential therapeutic targets. The pan-HDAC inhibitor, Panobinostat, was cytotoxic to all Ewing sarcoma cell lines tested with clinically relevant IC50s (≤200nM) and repressed expression of Cyclin D1 and pRB. ALK inhibition was cytotoxic at doses slightly higher than that of clinical relevance. HDAC and ALK expression levels correlated to cell sensitivity. JAK1 inhibition does not appear to have efficacy at clinically relevant dosing. Panobinostat synergizes with Doxorubicin at clinically relevant doses.
 Conclusion: This work highlights that RNA expression may identify potential targets which could be effective in treating Ewing sarcoma or potentially improve the efficacy of standard of care drugs. HDAC and ALK inhibition show a decrease in cell viability in ES cell line models. Future studies of HDAC and ALK inhibitors will aim to determine efficacy in xenograft models.
 Citation Format: Kaitlyn Smith, Divya Gandra, Kimberly McKinney, Karl Dykema, Abhinav Nagulapally, Giselle S. Sholler, Javier Oesterheld, Erin Trovillion. Targeting Ewing sarcoma based on RNA expression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3980.


ABSTRACT
A simple and rapid method for determination of Benzocaine, chlorbutol, paradichlorobenzene and α-pinene in pharmaceutical preparations was developed and validated using gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID). GC separation was performed in about 12 min using a 5% SE-30 column (6ft ×1/8 inch). Nitrogen was used as carrier gas at a flow-rate of 2 ml min-1. After injection of the sample at inlet temperature 225 0C, the temperature of GC oven was as follows: initial temperature was 150 0C, held for 1 min, increased to 180 0C at 50 0C min-1 held for 1 min, and finally to 2500C at 500C min-1 with a final hold of 1.5 min. Calibration curves of benzocaine, chlorbutol, p-dichlorobenzene and α-pinene were linear between the concentration range of 100 to 1000µgml-1, 200 to 2000µgml-1, 32 to 320µgml-1 and 1.2 to 12µgml-1 respectively. The method was found to be specific, precise and accurate. The method was applied for the quality control of commercial ear drop containing Benzocaine, chlorbutol, paradichlorobenzene and α-pinene to quantify the drug and to check the formulation content uniformity.


ABSTRACT The formation of three-dimensional (3D) interconnected carbon network throughout insulative polymer matrix is advantageous to elaborating electrically conductive nanocomposites. Herein, oil-in-water (O/W) Pickering emulsion stabilized by carbon nanohybrids assembled with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was utilized as a template to achieve core-shell structured poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microsphere. The effect of synthesis time on the amphiphilicity of carbon nanohybrid stabilizer is studied. Investigations on the as-prepared Pickering emulsion and the electrical conductivity of the derived carbon nanohybrid composites were directed with respect to the concentration and formulation of carbon nanohybrid stabilizer, respectively. Considering a balance between electrical and mechanical properties, 0.74 wt% of carbon nanohybrid stabilizer was used to form O/W Pickering emulsion, which was responsible for the electrical conductivity of 4 × 10−8 S m−1 for the resulting RGO/CNTs/PMMA nanocomposites. The processing-structure-property relationship of carbon nanocomposites based on O/W Pickering emulsion strategy is further demonstrated in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation and thermo-mechanical analysis. The processing and functional synergies between GO and CNTs are identified to efficiently construct interconnected electrically conductive pathway in polymer matrix.


The demethylation of morphine and a number of other compounds by a rat liver microsome preparation is described. A concentration of 40 mM nicotinamide was necessary in the system to obtain the optimal rate of demethylation. Only N-methyl compounds of plant or synthetic origin were demethylated while those which occur naturally in mammalian tissues were not demethylated. Nalorphine and levallorphan inhibited the demethylation of morphine. The administration of either morphine or cortisone caused a significant diminution in the demethylation of morphine.


Some reports have uncovered that the number of religious intolerance and violation cases still appear in Indonesia recently. Preventive actions must be taken to keep Indonesia aligned with its national motto "unity in diversity". This paper discusses the importance of promoting religious moderation toward society to build peace and harmony. Furthermore, this paper addresses the urgency of inserting religious moderation values to school instructions, particularly in English language teaching. Some practical ways of embedding the religious moderation values into English instructions are also presented so that English teachers can apply them in their classes. Finally, it is expected that religious tolerance and respect for diversity can be built among students.


This paper observed the problem of fingerprint image recognition in the case of missing pixels from the original image. The possibility of missing pixels recovery is tested by applying the Compressive Sensing approach. Namely, different percentage of missing pixels is observed and the image reconstruction is done by applying commonly used approach for sparse image reconstruction. The theory is verified by experiments, showing successful image reconstruction and later person identification even if less then 90% of the image pixels is missing.


The Geomorphology group from the Earth Science Department of "La Sapienza" University of Rome has been studying for twenty years the Fiume Mignone drainage basin. Within this frame, a series of longlasting field surveys, supported and completed by aerial photo interpretation and information by local archives, led to the achievement of the 1:10 000 geomorphological map of the Monterano Nature Reserve territory (Della


The problem of enciphering a stationary finite discrete message so that a cryptanalyst is unlikely to decrypt an intercepted cryptogram is considered. Additive-like instantaneous block (ALIB) encipherers are studied that employ a list of e^{nr} keywords of length n , called the cipher. An ALIB encipherer produces a cryptogram word of length n from a message word and a key word of the same length by combining corresponding message letters and key-word letters. Certain technical restrictions sure placed on the combining function. The decipherer uses a decoder which combines a letter from the key word used in enciphering with a letter from the cryptogram to form a letter of the decoded message. cryptanalyst also decodes letter by letter with an identical decoder; however, he uses a keyword that is not necessarily that used in enciphering. For a given message source and combiner, the design of the cipher consists in choosing the block length n , the key rate r , and the set of e^{nr} key words. These are to be chosen so that p_{w} , the probability of correct decryptment of the message word, and p( \Delta) , the probability that the per letter nonzero Hamming distance between the decrypted message and the true message is smaller than \Delta , are very small for every cryptanalyst. A set of pairs ( \Delta,r) for which there exist ciphers with key rate r such that, p_{w} and p( \Delta) can be made arbitrarily small for every cryptanalyst is determined using the concepts of random ciphering and exponential bounding.


The Tax Increment Financing (TIF) method has achieved widespread popularity as a funding source to finance local infrastructure investments and improvements. However, little research has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of such programs. This study undertakes a regression analysis to examine the effects of the municipal adoption of TIF programs on local economic development. The empirical results suggest that the adoption of TIF programs has a significant positive effect on local employment.


1. The King is dead, long live the King!: or Karmic Kin(g)ship in Kota 2. In whose turban does the Lord reside?: Kings, Saints, and merchants in Western India 3. Military fiscalism and the cultural economy of devotion in eighteenth century Rajasthan 4. From 'Royal Service' to 'maternal devotion' during the Jhala Regency: local politics at the end of the Old Regime 5. An incidental history of a supplementary article: Hindu Kin(g)ship and early Colonial rule.


ABSTRACT The sites of Chinji type locality, Dhok Bun Ameer Khatoon, Lawa and Markhal are highly fossiliferous in the Chinji and Dhok Pathan formations, dated from middle and late Miocene (15.97–5.33 Ma), in the Lower and Middle Siwalik subgroups of the Pakistan. In these studied localities fossils of suids, tragulids, bovids (including caprins), giraffids, proboscideans, and rhinocerotids are reported. The main focus of current study is on family Suidae and the collected specimens show strong similarities with the previously discovered species of Listriodon pentapotamiae, Conohyus sindiensis, Propotamochoerus hysudricus, and Propotamochoerus sp. Here we present comparative data of suids from the Siwaliks and we notably present first remains of L. pentapotamiae incisors and C. sindiensis from Dhok Bun Ameer Khatoon; P. hysudricus from Markhal and Propotamochoerus sp. from Chinji type section. The material described here enhances our knowledge about the diversification and evolution of suid fossil species in the Siwaliks of Pakistan.


Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF - A) and lymph - vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF - C) mRNA were examined by Northern blot in 8 normal pancreatic tissues and 8 pancreatic carcinoma specimens. The expression of VEGF A、VEGF- C protein were examined by immunohistochemical staining in 50 pancreatic carcinoma specimens. Northern blot analysis revealed the levels of the VEGF- A 、 VEGF- C transcription were approximately 3.0、3.6- fold higher in the pancreatic cancers compared with the normal pancreas. Immunohistochemical staining revealed 25 cases (50% ) were positive for VEGF - A and 40(80%) cases were positive for VEGF - C in the cytoplasm of the cancer cells in 50 pancreatic cancer cases, x2 analysis indicated that the presence of VEGF - A in the cancer cells was associated with statistically significant increase in the size and local extension of the primary tumor ( P 0.05), and that the presence of VEGF - C in the cancer cells was associated with statistically significant increase in lymph node metastasis (P 0.05). There was no correlation between the expression of VEGF - A and VEGF - C in the same cancer cells. These findings indicated that VEGF - A and VEGF - C are coexpressed in pancreatic cancers , there is no any relationship between the expression of VEGF - A and VEGF - C in pancreatic cancer and it probable lead to different biological characteristics of tumor cells.


The empowerment and facility of new ubiquitous sensor technologies combined with the inherent freedom of playful arenas has led to a new breed of performance. These new performances meld atoms and bits, performer and audience, fantasy and fact to create an intimate connection between our physical and virtual world and to affectively augment our notion of expectation. Low-cost sensing and quick set up allows for more flexible, spontaneous and mobile performances which infiltrate unanticipated performance spaces. Our interest lies in how technology stimulates the desire of the clubber to create and be performative within this space; how the technology promotes dialogue between itself and the user; how the use of such technology may signal new and innovative performance practices. We perceive the underground club space as an arena where all who contribute to its status as a communal event embrace participation, performance and play. The clubbing environment invites individuals and groups to gather together, to suspend time and to engage in a social activity which allows them to play with and destabilise notions of identity and reality. New possibilities are envisaged through collaborative creativity. Observable participation encouraged by playful arenas may be planned and intentionally invoked by the performance. Alternatively, participation may be unplanned and proactive on the part of the audience. Performativity infuses a club event throughout and manifests on both formal and informal levels. Clubbers use of costume is often highly imaginative and can be extended further into sustained role-play. Clubbers themselves add to a sense of the theatrical experience by adopting "characters" who interact with the crowd over the course of a night. This intentional shape shifting and willingness to "other" provides us as technologists and performers with a fertile ground for experimentation and innovation. A significant aspect relating to the use of hi-tech elements in playful arenas is the apparentness of technology in performance which can either impress or intimidate observers. Alternatively, an apparent lack of technology may have a larger impact if the technology is hidden and only the effects of its usage are seen or felt, without being obscured by the edifice of the technology itself. In this paper, we investigate the use of high technology in performance, specifically within clubbing environments, and deploy our own pieces in these spaces to expose the technical, conceptual and aesthetic parameters associated with such use. The increased uptake of technology in performance runs in parallel with the changing nature of performance itself. In a variety of performance environments, such as galleries and theatres, observers are conditioned and engrained with the rigid rules of acceptable behaviour. New environments are rapidly emerging which do not bring with them such preconceived baggage of acceptable behaviour and are particularly conducive to physical engagement and interaction, with their emphasis on play in a spirit of festival and carnival. In these conditions, interaction thrives and participation flourishes from the unfamiliar interplay between audience, performer and technology, often blurring the boundary between observers and observed. Our paper explores how such relationships change our preconceived notions of acceptable behaviour and with it our legacy of expectation.


This paper emerges from a microethnographic study of a number of classrooms in different areas of Negara Brunei Darussalam (henceforth Brunei), a small Malay Islamic Monarchy on the northern coast of Borneo, Southeast Asia. The official language is Bahasa Melayu, and a local variety of Malay, referred to as Brunei Malay, is the language of everyday communication. Since independence in 1984, English has been one of the languages in the sistem pendidikan dwibahasa or bilingual education system. In this system Malay is the language of instruction for the first three years of schooling. From the fourth year, English becomes the language of instruction for most subjects in the curriculum. The focus of this paper is one classroom in a small up-river school away from the Malay centre, and in one of the few areas in the country where a form of Malay is not the major language in the community. The area consists of three ethnic groups, the Dusun, Penan and Iban, groups which have their own languages. The paper describes the reading practices in the classroom, and discusses the positionings of the participants, and the languages used to accomplish literacy events. In particular, it focuses on the inter-relationships between monolingual text and the participants' multilingual talking text into being.


In this issue of Multiple Sclerosis Journal, two patients are reported who received treatment with Cladribine2 or Rituximab3 during the escalating COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. Both patients were hospitalized within a month of treatment with confirmed COVID-19 infection. Remarkably, despite severe lymphopenia due to recent Cladribine or undetectable B-lymphocyte counts from long-term Rituximab therapy, both patients only developed moderate COVID-19 pneumonia with good recovery. These new cases add to an increasing number of reports of favourable outcomes in MS patients receiving high-efficacy, lymphocyte-depleting therapies who have developed COVID-19 infection.4,5


Historically, moral panics have often centered the possible impact of media on youth. It is not easy to disentangle the effects of sexual media in general from the effects of sexually explicit media on youth. However, this chapter argues that the bulk of the evidence on the influence of mainstream online pornography on youth suggests that there is, on average, a negative effect and that there may be particular reasons for concern in the absence of comprehensive sex education. The chapter provides statistical information on the prevalence of pornography use by youth, the age of first exposure, and sexting, as well as evidence-based information about risk factors for, and consequences of, use. The chapter argues that public health professionals need to safeguard underage youth from the potential harms of pornography while pushing back on nonscientific claims about its effects and promoting a sex-positive perspective on sex simultaneously.


The present invention provides methods and biomarkers for diagnosing autism by compared to non autistic controls to identify the identification of cellular metabolites produced in autistic patient samples. Brain tissue of autistic samples, cerebrospinal fluid, plasma or a method for identifying a specific profile is present in body fluids or secreted metabolites, are described herein. Pattern of individual metabolites or secreted metabolites provides a metabolic signature of autism, it is possible to provide a diagnosis using this signature.


Albeit sharing "Salafism" in name, Jihadi Salafist movement is different from the mainstream Salafism in multiple respects. Among others, it's Fiqh (jurisprudence) distinguishes it from other Salfi strands, since Jihadi Salafist established their own underlying fiqh principles. To put it into perspective, their understanding of Salafist jurisprudence principles is characterized by three main features: firstly, it serves collective actions and social agitation; secondly, it excuses its proponents' autonomous actions: and finally, it theorizes individual instead of institutionalized actions. This study hypothesizes that the Jihadi Salafist movement tends to advance these actions in the light of revisiting the all-important principles of ijtihad, tawhid, iman, tazkya. While complying with official institutes issuing fatwa (religious edict) and dominant social and political order and its gradual amendment is prescribed by Salafism fiqh, Jihadi Salafism demands abiding by Quran and Sunna, and encourages abolishing official institutes in favor of collective and violent actions. The current paper aims to explore Salafists' atypical understanding of main Salafist theoretical principles and its impact on proceedings and violence in Jihadi Salafist movement.


We analysed the light curves of four active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the Kepler field, and find multicomponent power density spectra with characteristic frequencies that are surprisingly similar to other Kepler AGNs (including ZW229-15). An identical time series analysis of randomly selected planet candidate stars revealed the same features, suggesting an instrumental origin for the variability. This result is enigmatic, as these signals have been confirmed for ZW229-15 using independent observations from Swift. Based on our re-analysis of these Swift data and test simulations, we now distinguish the instrumental artifact in Kepler data from the real pattern in Swift observations. It appears that some other AGNs observed with instruments such as XMM-Newton show similar frequency components. This supports the conclusion that the similarity between the variability timescales of the Kepler artifact and real Swift features is coincidental.


A transmissive-type target includes a target layer, and a transmissive substrate configured to support the target layer. The transmissive substrate has a pair of surfaces facing each other and is formed of polycrystalline diamond. In the transmissive substrate, one of the pair of surfaces includes polycrystalline diamond having a first average crystal grain diameter which is smaller than a second average crystal grain diameter of polycrystalline diamond included on the other surface opposing thereto. The target layer is supported by any one of the pair of surfaces.


A velocity distribution measuring system has been developed using flow visualization and digital image processing to estimate unsteady three-dimensional flow fields quantitatively. Flow fields are visualized with tracer particles, and two TV cameras record these images stereoscopically. A special real time image processor generates tracer particles' starting point and pathline images from video signals sent by the TV cameras. An on-line computer analyzes these images and derives velocity vectors. This system has been applied to three-dimensional flow in a duct, and three-dimensional velocity vectors were obtained automatically.


A new method for performing molecular dynamics simulations with fluctuating charge polarizable potentials is introduced. In fluctuating charge models, polarizability is treated by allowing the partial charges to be variables, with values that are coupled to charges on the same molecule as well as those on other molecules. The charges can be efficiently propagated in a molecular dynamics simulation using extended Lagrangian dynamics. By making a coordinate change from the charge variables to a set of normal mode charge coordinates for each molecule, a new method is constructed in which the normal mode charge variables uncouple from those on the same molecule. The method is applied to the TIP4P‐FQ model of water and compared to other methods for implementing the dynamics. The methods are compared using different molecular dynamics time steps. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 26: 699–707, 2005


Vehicle classification is an important subject of study due to its significance in a number of areas including law enforcement, traffic surveillance, autonomous navigation, and transportation management. While numerous approaches have been proposed, few studies have been published with regard to the multi-view classification of vehicles captured in real surveillance. In this paper, we consider the multi-view classification of vehicles as an attribute prediction problem with views (rear, front, and side) as attributes. The corresponding multi-task learning is implemented in the Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (RCNN) framework, which classifies vehicle categories (car, truck, bus, and van) and predicts the attributes simultaneously. Experiments on a field-captured vehicle dataset provide satisfactory results, with approximate 83% accuracy for vehicle type classification and over 90% accuracy for attribute prediction.


This paper presents a comparative case study from two UK universities that contextualises their use of the Carpe Diem Learning Design methodology.  The aim of the case study is not to share an evaluation of the Carpe Diem process per se , as both institutions are confident in the validity of the design process it scaffolds. Rather, it explores the different contexts, institutional drivers and evolutions of the original process in both institutions: supporting the development of online programmes at Glasgow Caledonian University, and blended programmes through the CAIeRO framework (Creating Aligned Interactive educational Resource Opportunities) at the University of Northampton. It then shares common challenges and opportunities; in particular the use of Carpe Diem to support open educational practice. The aim is to contribute to an ongoing collaborative narrative around the processes involved in implementing and embedding a formal learning design process such as Carpe Diem.


Singularity-free cosmological solutions may be obtained from the string action at tree level if the dimension of the space-time is greater than 10 and if brane configurations are taken into account. The behaviour of the dilaton field in this case is also regular. Asymptotically a radiative phase is attained indicating a smooth transition to the standard cosmological model. PACS number(s): 04.20.Cv., 04.20.Me At tree level, the string action can be reduced to the gravitational action coupled non-minimally to the dilaton field and to gauge fields. These gauge fields may couple non-minimally or minimally to the dilaton field depending if they come from the NeveuSchwartz or Ramond-Ramond sector of the string action [1]. In general, the dimension of the space-time in string theories is equal to 10 if supersymmetry is considered. Bosonic string may leave in a 26 dimensional space-time. But, M-theory requires a 11-dimensional space-time while the F -theory is generally formulated in 12 dimensions [2, 3, 4]. Cosmology is an arena where the consequences of string theories can be explored, since the typical string effects must manifestate themselves at very large energy levels, which can be attained only in the very early universe. One of the expectation concerning string cosmology relies on the possibility to obtain singularity-free primordial cosmological models. However, this expectation has been frustrated until now: even when a nonsingular four dimensional space-time is obtained, divergences in the dilaton field appear and employement of an effective action at tree level becomes doubtfull [5, 6]. In some cases, as the singularity is approached non-linear geometrical terms may be taken into account, avoiding the appearence of divergences in the curvature invariants. But, the entire scenario is composed of many branchs rendering all the model quite artificial [7]. In this work we consider the string effective action in four dimension obtained from the original D-dimensional theory by dimensional reduction and truncation. This effective action will be coupled to ordinary radiative matter, which may be considered as a manifestation of the electromagnetic term existing in the Neveu-Schwartz and/or RamondRamond sector. Singularity-free solutions are found. But, in order to obtain a complete regular model, in the geometric and dilaton fields, the dimension of the space-time must e-mail: email@example.com e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Oxidative stress plays an important pathophysiological role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. The imbalance of pro and antioxidant factors, defining oxidative stress, occurs when production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by generators (NADPH oxidase, xanthine oxidase, uncoupled NO synthase, lipoxygenases, cyclooxygenases or the mitochondrial electron transport chain) overcomes cellular protection provided by defense systems (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione and nonenzymatic scavengers). Our laboratory is researching the role of veins in the development of hypertension. We investigated ROS generation and some of its major determinants in venous and arterial blood vessels from normal rats. The superior mesenteric vein (SMV) and artery (SMA), as well as the inferior vena cava (VC) and the thoracic aorta (Ao) were compared in terms of their basal superoxide production relative to tissue weight, using a lucigenin chemiluminiscence based assay. In both cases, the vein generated more superoxide than its arterial counterpart (VC = 210 ± 42% Ao; SMV = 267 ± 48% SMA). Western analysis of homogenates from rat VC and Ao revealed that xanthine oxidase expression was significantly increased in the VC compared to the Ao (280 ± 31%), as well as catalase expression (VC = 135 ± 11% Ao) while p47phox had decreased expression in the VC compared to Ao (70 ± 11%). No significant change was observed for eNOS, RAC1 and Cu Zn SOD. These data suggest that veins differ from arteries with respect to ROS metabolism. However, the molecular mechanisms behind the different ROS handling by venous and arterial vascular tissue have yet to be uncovered.


CALCITE is usually regarded_ as a crystal suitable for precision X-ray research, the intensity of the reflections given by it being much nearer those calculated for an ideal crystal than for instance in the case of rock-salt. Calcite should therefore be particularly well-suited for quantitative studies of the type of X-ray reflection which involves a change of frequency and is analogous to the well-known Raman effect in crystals. A strongly exposed Laue photograph showing numerous such reflections by the crystal planes of calcite was reproduced with a letter by Sir C. V. Raman and Dr. P. Nilakantan under date the 18th of August 1940 which was published in the issue of Nature dated the 19th October 1940. Attention was there drawn to the appearance in the photograph simultaneously of the quantum reflections of the first, second and third orders by the cleavage planes of calcite, as well as the welldefined character of the quantum reflections. In the present paper, some further observations on the subject are described and additional photographs are reproduced. The explanation of the appearance of X-ray reflections with altered frequency is, broadly, that the encounter between the X-ray quantum and the crystal lattice results in the infra-red vibrations of the latter being excited, the incident quantum going off with diminished energy in a direction determined by one or other of the different sets of lattice planes in the crystal. The possibility of such a process and the experimental evidence that it actually occurs in the case of the (111) planes of diamond was indicated by Sir C. V. Raman and Dr. P. Nilakantan in an article in Current Science for April 1940. In view of the universality of the phenomenon and its great significance in crystal physics, it would appear desirable to present some considerations of an elementary character which may help to elucidate these new ideas.


There is a persistent misconception that when a lighted candle is supported in a container of water and a closed cylinder is lowered over the candle, the candle is extinguished after a time by complete consumption of the oxygen in the cylinder, with a volume change corresponding to the amount of oxygen in the air. This misconception has appeared in the literature periodically for many years. Here, we present a number of experiments that refute this misconception. An alternative explanation that is consistent with all the collected data attributes the change in volume to expulsion of heated air while the cylinder is being lowered over the lighted candle. The flame is extinguished by local depletion of oxygen and buildup of carbon dioxide near the candle.


How does a large unconditional increase in salary affect the performance of in-cumbent employees in the public sector? We present experimental evidence on this question in the context of a policy change in Indonesia that led to a permanent doubling of teacher base salaries. Using a large-scale randomized experiment across a representative sample of Indonesian schools that accelerated this pay increase for teachers in treated schools, we find that the large pay increase significantly improved teachers' satisfaction with their income, reduced the incidence of teachers holding outside jobs, and reduced self-reported financial stress. Nevertheless, after two and three years, the increase in pay led to no improvement in student learning outcomes. The effects are precisely estimated, and we can rule out even modest positive impacts on test scores. Our results suggest that unconditional pay increases are unlikely to be an effective policy option for improving the effort and productivity of incumbent employees in public-sector settings. JEL Codes : J31, J45, I21, C93, O15.