THE EXAMPLE AND ITS FUNCTIONS Toward the end of Meditation H, Descartes employs the example of a piece of wax as an illustration that even judgments about senseperceived objects require ideas which are found in the mind and which are not derived from the senses. This example re-inforces his argument that the mind is known better than the body. Descartes takes a piece of wax, subjects it to a higher temperature, and notes the resultant alterations in odor, color, sound, size, and shape. If all these senseperceived qualifies change, how can we answer the question, "Does the same wax remain after this change? ''2 Descartes emphasizes that the question is concerned with the same wax. He says, "Remanetne adhuc eadem cera? ''a "La mesme cite demeure-t-elle apr6s ce changement? ''4 While the example appears to be quite straightforward, I believe that it is really very complex and serves a variety of purposes. There is no doubt that the example is about the nature of the wax both as itself and as an instance of corporeal substance in general. But it is primarily concerned with the nature and identity of this particular piece of wax as itself and as an example of a corporeal individual. Descartes is quite clear that he is concerned with our knowledge of the identity and the nature of "this piece of wax in particular. ''5 Will Descartes' investigation of the nature of a particular body and our knowledge of its identity, together with his claim to recognize that wax after a passage of time, also suffice to re-identify that wax? The problem of re-identification is that of "identifying a particular encountered on one occasion, or described in respect of one occasion, as the same individual as a particular encountered on another occasion, or described in respect of another occasion. ''6 I believe that Descartes' example is intended to provide for attaining knowledge of the identity of particular bodies and also to provide grounds for their re-identification. I shall propose a Cartesian solution to the problems of identity and re-identification of corporeal individuals which includes reason as well as sense perception and imagination. It is, of course, quite true that the judgment of re-identification presupposes that one has acquired knowledge of the identity of the object itself. Knowledge of what an object


An examination of the population density and morphology of the apocrine glands of four 'races' including fourteen breeds of African indigenous cattle has been completed. Two types of gland were found, the club-shaped and the sac-like, and it is suggested that the former is the more primitive form. Considerable differences in gland density and volume were found. In the thoracic-humped African Zebu both of these were similar to figures given for B. indicus sui generis. Gland volume was found to be closely correlated to heat toleration, but it is suggested that secretory rate is probably of high importance in view of the fact that despite differences in gland volume, there were only small differences in heat toleration coefficient. It is suggested that the heat toleration coefficient as presently defined may not be a reliable indication of the animals tolerance of prolonged high temperatures. A suggestion is made regarding the mechanism of heat control by sweating in cattle.


This paper proposes a dynamic GOP structure selection method to provide seamless video streaming for vertical handoff in the heterogeneous wireless network. The proposed method dynamically changes the interval of I-pictures by using the received signal strength indication (RSSI) and the pilot strength (Ec/Io) in order to reduce error propagation due to packet losses. Thus, with the proposed method, the client can always receive the I-picture right after vertical handoff. Experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly reduce the video quality degradation caused by vertical handoff in the real-time video encoding applications.


3 Abstract: Antioxidants prevent the reaction of free radicals with biomolecules and can promote the nutritional values and physiological properties of foodstuffs. There are synthetic and natural kinds of antioxidants and nowadays there is a trend to replace the natural kinds instead of the synthetic kinds. Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L. ) is a well known and valuable medicinal plants that is used widely in Iranian traditional medicine. The antioxidant effect of essential oil of Chamomile had proofed and this study shows the antioxidant activity of chamomile extract. The extract was obtained by the mixture of equal volume of water and ethyl alcohol (1:1). The antioxidant activity and stability was investigated with three methods, DPPH free • radical scavenging system; determine of the peroxide and thiobarbituric acid numbers. The antioxidant activity of the extract were determined in 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 mg/ml concentrations by measuring of peroxide and thiobarbituric acid numbers in a crude sunflower oil as a greasy food. The antioxidant activities of the extracts were valuable and were raised by increasing of the extract concentrations. Results show that chamomile extract can be use as a natural antioxidant in oily foods as a complementary material.


Against the background of the crisis in the journalism industry, many journalists have decided to leave the occupation for other activities. We examine the reasons journalists give for leaving journalism, or remaining in it; the exit mechanisms they use; the destinations they choose and broader repercussions for Israeli journalism and the cultural industries. We base this examination on a sample of 60 life histories of active and former Israeli journalists, analyzed through the use of the "Exit, Voice and Loyalty" (EVL) typology developed by Albert Hirschman. Additionally, we investigate specific exit mechanisms and destinations using Bourdieu's notions of capital. We argue that applying the EVL typology to the data suggests the easy availability of exit routes out of journalism together with journalists' difficulty in voicing their occupational concerns within news organizations, given their chaotic organizational structure, contributed to news organizations' passive response to the crisis.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between customer mistreatment and employee retaliation. The moderating effect of employee psychological strain on the relationship between customer mistreatment and employee retaliation is also examined.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 107 contact centre customer service representatives completed a survey. Moderated multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between customer mistreatment and psychological strain on employee retaliation.Findings – Customer mistreatment emerged as a significant predictor of employee retaliation against the customer (customer mistreatment: β=0.252, p<0.01), providing support for hypothesis 1. Psychological strain was found to significantly moderate the effects of customer mistreatment on employee retaliation against the customer, (β=0.197, p<0.01) supporting hypothesis 2.Originality/value – The results provide a greater understanding of individuals' responses to customer i...


One hundred HIV seropositive blood donors were screened for the presence of antibodies to HTLV-I by passive agglutination test from 1994 to 1996. Thirty two percent of the HIV-I seropositive blood donors were found to be positive for HTLV-I (Titre 1:16). Only Six percent of the HIV-seronegative donors were found to be positive for HTLV-I indicating thereby that it should be mandatory to screen all the blood samples for transfusion for HTLV-I antibodies also.


We examine how the congressional coalition in favor of a law affects the probability of the president appending a positive or negative signing statement to it. Our results show that coalitions matter—presidents consider the power and status of a law's sponsor and the composition of its cosponsorship coalition when deciding whether to offer praise or raise concerns. Moreover, the factors driving praise and criticism differ from one another in important ways. These analyses demonstrate the value of assessing the valence of a signing statement rather than just its presence, and of extending the focus of research on signing statements beyond aggregate factors to investigate how the context surrounding a particular law shapes the president's reaction to it.


'The Grandmaster' sits in a tradition of kung fu movies showcasing genuine fighting techniques alongside the fictional exploits of real-life historical martial-arts masters like Ip Man.


Design is a kind of cultural form having cultural features.Industry design in China must find its own direction from culture factor precisely,and uses Chinese traditional culture to display the cultural content of Chinese industry design.Traditional culture deeply affected design and offered design source forever,established the cultural foundation for native enterprise image as well.The design thought based on native culture is reflected by concrete product development in this paper.


In this article, a novel solid–solid phase change heat storage material was synthesized via a two-step condensation reaction of high molecular weight poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG4000) with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI). To characterize the resulting product in comparison with pristine PEG4000, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analyses, and polarization optical microscopy measurements were employed to investigate functionality, thermal properties, and crystalline behavior. The results indicated that the crosslinking phase change material showed typical solid–solid phase transition properties, and its phase change enthalpy reached 72.8 kJ/kg. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


This paper presents the design and analysis of a variable stiffness flexure mechanism with a novel normal-stress electromagnetic stiffness tunable actuator (NESTA). Aiming at real-time stiffness adjustment of flexible mechanisms, the proposed method employs a combination of flexible guiding assembly and the NESTA structure. The static model of the proposed mechanism is developed, including the analysis of the static electromagnetic force and the electromagnetic stiffness, as well as the stiffness of the flexible guide assembly. The electromagnetic stiffness adjustment capability is further evaluated by finite element software COMSOL. The effect of mechanism stiffness adjustment on mechanism characteristics is also analyzed by multi-physics field coupled finite element simulation, which demonstrates the nonlinear characteristics associated with the armature position.


Objective : We evaluated nuclear factor kappa B { NFkB , rs28362491 [-94ins/delATTG (W/D)]} and angiotensin converting enzyme { ACE ; rs1799752 [Ins(I)/Del(D)]} gene polymorphisms and their correlation with thyroid function in patients with heart failure (HF). Design : Peak oxygen uptake (VO 2 ) was evaluated (by Weber classification) during a symptom-limited cardiopulmonary exercise test in 194 patients. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and free (F) T3 and FT4 were also measured. According to their cardiovascular (CV) capacity, patients were subdivided into four groups: group A included patients with peak VO 2 >20 ml/kg/min, group B 16-20 ml/kg/min, group C 10-16 ml/kg/min and group D 6-10 ml/kg/min. Patients were also genotyped for NFkB and ACE genetic variants. Results : T3 was increased and FT3 was decreased for every  in Weber's classification (p=0.007 and p=0.012, respectively). Del carriers had elevated FT3 levels compared with Ins carriers (p=0.021). Patients with II genotype had elevated T4 levels compared with ID genotype (p=0.044). Both T4 and FT4 were decreased in D allele carriers (p=0.007 and p=0.045, respectively). Conclusions : Thyroid hormones correlated with CV capacity. Associations between the NFkB and ACE gene polymorphisms and thyroid hormones levels were also observed. Further larger studies are required to clarify genes contribution in HF. Στις μέρeς μας παρά την πρόοδο που έχeι γίνeι στην κατανόηση του συνδρόμου της καρδιακής ανeπάρκeιας (ΚΑ), όσο και την eξέλιξη των θeραπeυτικών μέσων για την αντιμeτώπιση αυτού, η θνησιμότητα του συνδρόμου παραμένeι υψηλή τόσο στη χώρα μας όσο και παγκοσμίως. Βέβαια θα πρέπeι να ληφθeί  υπ΄ όψιν οτι ο αριθμός των πασχόντων από ΚΑ αυξάνeι συνeχώς, αφeνός λόγω της αύξησης του μέσου όρου ηλικίας και αφeτέρου λόγω της πιο αποτeλeσματικής φαρμακeυτικής και eπeμβατικής θeραπeίας της ΚΑ που παρατeίνeι την eπιβίωσή τους. Eκτός από τις συμβατικές θeραπeίeς τα τeλeυταία χρόνια σημαντικό ρόλο παίζeι και η γeνeτική στην αντιμeτώπιση δυσeπίλυτων και πολυδιάστατων νοσημάτων όπως η ΚΑ. Η ανeύρeση γονιαδιακών πολυμορφισμών που eμπλέκονται στην παθοφυσιολογία της νόσου μπορούν να αποτeλέσουν χρήσιμο eργαλeίο για τη διάγνωση αλλά και την eξατομικeυμένη θeραπeία της ΚΑ.


The chlorination of the carboxylic acid unit of α-aminoacids is an important reaction in organic synthesis, and the resulting compounds are usually seen as reactive intermediate species. Herein we report a straightforward procedure to obtain [MCl6]− salts (M = Nb, 2a; Ta, 2b) of the L-proline-derivative (pyrrolidinium-2-carbonylchloride). These are stable up to 80 °C, in the solid state as well as in organic solvents. The X-ray structures determined for 2a,b include the first example of a crystallographically-characterized α-ammonium-acylchloride.


This is a review of Marianne Tansman's book La guitare dans la vie d'Alexandre Tansman, written in 2018. The book consists of a chronological account of the composer's relation with the guitar and with the guitarist Andrés Segovia, and produces remarks both on the style and particularities of Tansman's works for guitar as well as broader considerations on Tansman's artistic point of view. By the end of the text, it is compared to other works on the issue of the guitar in the life of Tansman, and some directions for further research on the subject are suggested.


Radon in the air is mainly released from the rock and soil radon. The geochemical characteristics of radon in soil gas around the Capital area of China were investigated based on the measurements of radon concentrations in Sanhe area,Yanhuai basin and Tangshan area. The mean radon concentrations were 2 × 104- 2. 5 × 104,1.5 ×104- 2 × 104,and less than 1.5 ×104Bq·m- 3in Sanhe area,Tangshan area,and Yanhuai basin,respectively. Overall,the distribution of radon concentration was higher in the east than in the west. Based on the soil radon concentration in the international environmental hazard classification,some parts of the study areas reached to the moderate risk level. Based on China's standards( code for indoor environmental pollution control of civil building engineering),anti-cracking and waterproof measures should be taken on the ground floors of buildings in Sanhe area and Tangshan area,while no measures are needed to prevent radon in Yanhuai basin.


hdl cholesterol and other lipids in coronary heart disease high density lipoprotein free cholesterol and other lipids patterns, lipids, and coronary jama.jamanetwork lipids & cardiovascular disease lipidsprofsimons lipid profile of the coronary heart disease (chd) patients nutrition, lipids, and cardiovascular disease nuts, blood lipids and cardiovascular disease nhri lipids, carbohydrates, and heart disease functional foods, blood lipids and coronary heart disease mendelian randomization of blood lipids for coronary heart atp iii guidelines at-a-glance quick desk reference goodridge lipids & coronary heart disease british medical journal researchgate one pharmacist's view of coronary heart disease: comparing 5. the role of lipids in the development of review of serum lipids and apolipoproteins in risk coronary heart disease circ.ahajournals lipids and coronary heart disease khbd risk factors in coronary heart disease wpu association of lipids with coronary heart disease in a trans fatty acids and coronary heart disease clinicians guide to lipids and coronary heart disease to what extent are the effects of diet on coronary heart clinicians guide to lipids and coronary heart disease lipids in coronary artery disease patients participating coronary artery and heart disease washington | wellcare loss-of-function mutations in apoc3 triglycerides, and dietary lipids, sugar, fiber, and mortality from coronary lipids, lipoproteins, and coronary heart disease lipids and lipoproteins as predictors of coronary heart lipid and lipoprotein fractions and coronary artery disease the rationale for controlling dietary lipids in the alcohol, lipids and heart disease 11 dietary lipids and coronary heart disease crcnetbase coronary artery and heart disease washington wellcare lipids and the primary prevention of heart disease lipids and cvd prevention coconut sugar ↑ lipids pkdiet lipids in health and disease biomed central epidemiologic studies on dietary fats and coronary heart estimated coronary cholesterol heart disease (chd) risk medical management of serum lipids and coronary heart lipids in health and disease biomed central plant-based diets and control of lipids and coronary heart screening for lipid disorders association of lipids with coronary heart redalyc


Many papers claiming to show the accelerating influence of as phyxia upon epinephrine output from the suprarenal glands have been issued. Few of them, however, can be looked upon as giving any conclusive evidence, for the reactions employed in those researches have been by no means specific. For example, in the recent paper of Hartman and his co workers,1) who are convinced that the completely denervated pupil can be used to indicate increased epinephrine discharge, data contrary to their conclusions can be found. Those who do not, on the one hand, attribute any important effect to variations in the blood flow in the iris, such as are caused by clamping the ipsolateral carotid or both carotids, which are probably, according to them, much greater than the effect produced passively by pressure variations upon the completely denervated pupil, would explain, on the other hand, the pupil reaction in cats, deprived of both the supra renals, when excited by a barking dog, as the effect of a very small temperature change through a variation in the blood supply to the iris, caused by an increase in general blood pressure during the excitement. They observed also, as did Kellaway and Stewart and Rogoff, a dilatation of the denervated pupil in suprarenalectomized cats by ether and would explain it as due to the direct action of the narcotic upon the iris itself. They also found two factors dilating the denervated pupil other than epinephrine. So, according to their findings, the denervated pupil should not be taken as a specific reaction


This paper addresses the continuous discrete-time nonlinear filtering problem for stochastic dynamical systems using the feedback particle filter (FPF). The FPF updates each particle using feedback from the measurements, where the gain function that controls the particles is the solution of a Poisson equation. The main difficulty in the FPF is to approximate this solution using the particles that approximate the probability distribution. We develop a novel Galerkin-based method inspired by high-dimensional data-analysis techniques. Based on the time evolution of the particle cloud, we determine basis functions for the gain function and compute values of it for each individual particle. Our method is completely adapted to the recorded history of the particles and the update of the particles do not require further intermediate approximations or assumptions. We provide an extensive numerical evaluation of the proposed approach and show that it compares favorably compared to baseline FPF and particle filters based on the importance-sampling paradigm.


The absence of tone marks in text can be considered an instance of defective writing. Yet most writing systems of tone languages in Africa do not mark tone. This adds to ambiguity, which must be resolved on the basis of the context. Using tone-marked lexicons and tone rules the ambiguity can be resolved. This paper deals wit h a further problem, i.e. how to insert tone marks into a text without tone marking. Such a tool is needed in text-to-speech applications, and whenever a text needs to be provided with tone marks. Three approaches are briefly discussed, and one of them is selected for discussi on, implementation and demonstration. The implementation makes use of Finite State Methods in analysis, Constraint Grammar in disambiguation, and regular expressions in writing one rules. The system was implemented using Kinyarwanda verb morphology for testing and d emonstration. It is assumed that the approach is suitable especially for tone languages that have lexical and grammatical tone.


After discussing the idea of sexuality, or, better, the notion of sexual repression according to Freud, the author states that sex education as imparted nowadays consists simply in more or less complete information on the anatomo-physiological structure of reproductive organs. Sex education is not a problem to be solved in schools, but a fundamental one to be tackled within the family and society.


With monomer methyl methacrylate and macromolecules polymethylhydrosiloxane as raw material for hydrosilylation reaction and hydrolysis reaction,the polymethylhydrosiloxane modified as carboxyalkyl silicone,the reaction yield higher and by experiment the optimum reaction conditions were determined.


The present invention discloses an automobile seat cushion ventilation, comprising a cushion, and the seat cushion as a single entity, characterized in that there are further provided: a main duct, and the main axial fan installed in the ventilation duct main port, said Road junction provided at the seat cushion and the cushion; a plurality of branch duct, a branch duct provided inside the seat cushion and the back cushion and are in communication with the main duct. The car seat cushion ventilation cooling and ventilation good massage effect, reasonable structure and can quickly fix to solve the human discomfort and affect the normal use of automotive air-conditioning and ventilation cooling effect and other issues.


A possible use of forward proton tagging detectors at the LHC in the context of heavy ion interactions is discussed. It is shown that signals registered in such detectors are sensitive to the geometry of the collision. A method of the impact parameter and the collision asymmetry reconstruction on the event-by-event basis is proposed and its performance is studied with Monte Carlo simulations.


A high-frequency carrier-type (HFC-type) thin-film magnetic field sensor (or giant magneto-impedance, GMI, sensor) needs a bias magnetic field of Oe order for magnetic field measurement. In this report, a thin-film magnetic bias with coplanar layout is proposed for dc bias supply. The merits of the coplanar thin-film magnetic bias are as follows. Magnetic property degradation caused by both lamination of magnetic thin-films and heat treatment is avoided. The heat treatment is indispensable for realizing uniaxial anisotropy in a Co85Nb12Zr3 amorphous sensor element. Since a thin-film fabrication process is suitable for creating a coplanar pattern with precise dimensions, a precise dc bias field is obtained. An additional new structure proposed in this report uses a low-resistivity thin-film magnet for the current path of the sensor element. An SmCo5 amorphous thin-film magnet was proposed for this structure. This conductive metal bias magnet with coplanar layout is suitable for both the return path of the carrier current, which simplifies the sensor structure, and the impedance-matching ground plane for high-frequency carriers. We confirmed the properties of these proposed structures by experiment. The temperature property and 85°C 85% RH treatment property of the sensor were also measured. The results show the effectiveness of coplanar magnetic bias in an SmCo5 amorphous thin-film magnet.


"Field (clinical) trials are indispensable. They will continue to be an ordeal. They lack glamour, they strain our resources and our patience, and they protract the moment of truth to excruciating limits. Still, they are among the most challenging tests of our skills.... If, in major medical dilemmas the alternative is to pay the cost of perpetual uncertainty, have we really any choice?" 1 The clinical trial of the effect of hypoglycemic agents on the vascular complications of diabetes mellitus conducted by the University Group Program (UGDP) for the past ten years bears witness to the truthfulness of the above quotation. The hypothesis that control of the blood glucose level prevents or delays the vascular complications of diabetes has been supported so far only by evidence which is largely conjectural. 2 Such a relationship can be documented only with prospective study of patients randomly assigned to treatment regimens that differ


ABSTRACT CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Choosing a medical specialty and making decisions concerning a career are difficult processes for medical students and newly graduated physicians. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the influence of role models on the choice of surgery as a career, and to determine the most influential model characteristics. DESIGN AND SETTING: Qualitative analysis on responses to a self-administered questionnaire, in different teaching-learning settings. METHODS: Residents from all years of various surgical subspecialties in a university hospital were included in a survey about the factors that determined their choice of surgery. The questions included items on whether a role model had influenced them in choosing surgery, and the personal or professional characteristics of the models that had been most influential. The responses were subjected to qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Sixty-four out of 96 medical residents participated. Fifty-three residents (82.8%) acknowledged the influence of role models. Sixteen model characteristics were indicated as important, with 136 mentions. Characteristics classified as technical skills (55%), such as "medical knowledge" and "manual dexterity" predominated over humanistic characteristics (35%), such as "patient-physician relationships" and "ethical behavior". However, this difference was not statistically significant (Fisher test, P = 0.11). There were no age differences regarding the proportions mentioning "technical" and "non-technical" attributes, but female residents mentioned significantly more technical skills than their male colleagues did. CONCLUSIONS: The influence of role models seems to be an important factor determining the choice of surgery as a career. The influential characteristics of the models include not only technical but also humanistic qualities.


The concept of wireless power transfer (WPT) was successfully demonstrated in the early years of the 20th century. One promising application of using the WPT concept is the WPT transmission utilizing a large array of solar cells outside the earth's atmosphere to collect solar energy and then converts it to microwave power for transmission to earth using highly directive antennas. Space solar power (SSP) transmission concept may play an important role in the near future in harvesting clean and sustainable energy from space. The SSP concept calls for the large rectenna (i.e., antennas and rectifying circuitry) arrays farms that receive the microwave power that is transmitted from space and convert it into usable DC power. To obtain high power and high output voltage, the use of a large rectenna array is necessary, and hence the focus in this thesis is on improving the harvesting efficiency of rectenna systems. The two main figures of merit to evaluate a WPT rectenna system are the radiation to AC efficiency, and the radiation to DC efficiency. The latter combines the efficiencies of the electromagnetic energy collectors or antenna, and that of the rectifying circuitry. In the progress towards improving the efficiency of a rectenna array system, efforts were heavily focused on improving the AC to DC conversion efficiencies. However, in most previous works, efforts to improve the efficiency of the antennas were not pursued. The majority of rectennas were in fact designed using conventional antennas because of their wide use in modern communications technologies but not for their particular ability or suitability to efficiently harvest electromagnetic radiation. The first part of this thesis introduces, for the first time, the use of dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) in an array form as an energy harvester. A single DRA and a 1×3 array were used to build foundation profiles for using DRAs in an array form as an energy harvester. The proposed structures were designed and fabricated to maximize energy reception around 5.5 GHz. The size of the ground plane and coupling between dielectric resonator (DR) elements in an array were studied with special focus on the overall efficiency of the antenna structure for different incident polarizations. A 5×5 array was built and tested numerically and experimentally. Measurements showed that energy absorption efficiency as high as 67% can be achieved using an array of DRAs. Then an extension of this finding was carried out considering the DRA's fabrication challenges. A complementary DRAs structure consisting of DR blocks backed by cut grounds is proposed. It was shown through numerical simulations that the complementary DR blocks resonator can efficiently deliver the incident power carried by an electromagnetic wave to a load with an efficiency of 80%. The concept of using an electromagnetic energy harvesting surface (EHS) structure is introduced in the second part of this thesis. A design of an electromagnetic EHS inspired


OBJECTIVES:  To determine the effectiveness of vitamin D and home‐based quadriceps resistance exercise on reducing falls and improving the physical health of frail older people after hospital discharge.


Estimation of the impact of the Public Employment Program on the sexual wage differential for a sample of participants in the United States. Policy implications of sex-related wage differentials; Data and methods used; Presentation of the structural wage equation. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)


This article examines Army spousal attitudes toward senior civilian leaders in the United States. Based on the 2004 Military Families Survey, it investigates the demographic, political, and institutional factors that structured the job approval ratings of then-President George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Partisanship, race and ethnicity, and opinions about the war in Iraq were consistently significant predictors; experiences directly related to the Iraq war were not. For instance, while Republicans and Latinos were highly likely to support the leadership, past and present deployments were not significant. In addition, Army spouses appear to have distinguished between the three leaders. The results have implications for researchers interested not only in military families but also the role of race and ethnicity in the armed forces, retention dynamics, the civil–military gap, and the Army in a time of war.


Aim: Nitric oxide is involved in pathological processes that lead to tissue damage partly because of its free radical nature. Oxidative stress and vascular dysfunction are recognized contributors in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia. We investigated the serum concentration of nitric acid in 20 patients with probable Alzheimer disease, 20 patients with probable vascular dementia and in 19 control subjects. We also aimed to determine the association between this concentration and cognitive impairment tested by Mini-Mental State Examination in the disease groups.


The construction organization plan and the construction cost are the important components of the water-conservation and hydroelectric design documents.The rational determination of the construction methods,which possesses important significance for the construction cost,provides reliable foundation for the construction scheme.From two aspects of the foundation unit price and the engineering unit price,this paper briefly expounds the influence of the construction organization plan on the construction cost,and puts forward some principles of and measures for the rational determination of the construction organization plan.


Obesity is a serious health problem in Western society, affecting up to 35% of the adult population in the United States and is associated with cardiovascular disease, noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus, and increased risk of many forms of cancer. Obesity is recognized as a disorder of energy bal,ance, having genetic components, which develops when energy intake through feeding exceeds energy expenditure. Regulation of feeding occurs throu~h the hypothalamic regulation of two mainpathways, the catabolic or melanocortin pathway, and the anabolic or neuropeptide Y pathway. Evidence in rodent models shows that mutations in genes coding for neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptors in these pathways can cause obesity in rodents. Mutations in ortholog genes in humans may similarly be a cause of human obesity. Recent evidence has found that mutations in the melanocortin pathway in humans are either silent or occur at a frequency of less than 1%. The rate of mutations were examined in the genes coding for receptors involved in the anabolic pathway, specifically neuropeptide Y receptors Yl and Y5. In r addition, tissue specific expression patterns of the alternatively spliced forms of NPY Yl and Y5 receptor mRNAs were determined. Three separate heterozygous mutations were identified in the coding regions of both receptor genes. These mutations, however, were either synonymous (silent) or rare, occurring at a frequency less than 1%, providing indirect evidence that obesity in humans is not caused by these genes. Tissue specific expression analysis showed that expression of the Y5 receptor gene is localized primarily to the brain whereas the expression of the Yl receptor occurs in the brain as well as peripheral tissues and is regulated by three alternatively spliced 5' exons.


Circumstances, in which damages are awarded for loss of bargain without proof that the breach, which justified termination of a contract, also causes the loss of bargain that followed from the termination, are reviewed. It is argued that proof of cause of loss should never be dispensed with in a damages claim, and accordingly the only circumstance in which loss of bargain damages should be automatically available is where the termination follows a breach which substantially deprived the innocent party of the benefit of further performance.


In this paper, we examine polarization and partisan divergence in the American public on economic issues over the past 70 years. We bring to bear a new dataset that contains over half a million respondents from hundreds of individual polls. This dataset contains the responses to over 150 question series about economic issues. We combine this dataset with a dynamic group-level item response model to measure the ideology of the American public at both the state and national levels between 1946 and 2012. We find that the American public has only become modestly more polarized on economic issues over the past 70 years. However, the two parties are much more clearly sorted on economic issues today than in earlier decades. Moreover, members of the two parties are now further apart than ever before at both the state and federal levels. Our results speak to debates about polarization. They also suggest that partisan divergence in the mass public may have contributed more to elite polarization than scholars have previously thought.


SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS The limits and methods involved in the systematic analysis of algorithms are explored. A review of the existing work in this field is presented. A specific method of systematic analysis is developed. The method consists of (1) the translation of algorithm loop structures into recursive subroutines and recursive subroutine references, and (2) the semantic manipulation of expressions representing the joint probability distribution function of the program variables. A new delta function is introduced to describe the effects of conditional statements on the joint probability density function of the program variables. The method is applied to several simple algorithms, sorting and searching algorithms, and a tree insertion/deletion algorithm.


Business intelligence used by an enterprise is an effective tool to help and guide our decision making to improve our products and services quantity. This paper describes SharePoint Server 2007, what business intelligence is, discusses Office SharePoint Server 2007 features for business intelligence, data integration features of Office SharePoint Server 2007, and finally, describes information presentation and reporting features of SharePoint Server 2007.


The actual operation of the power distribution systems asks for high power quality (PQ). This fully justifies the investments in improving the metrics of power grid performances. But maintaining a PQ data infrastructure in a numerous locations is time-consuming and prohibitive. Moreover, each PQ monitor releases its own data format. These considerations justified using of a central PQ management system able to manipulate elliptical and time discontinuous information. The paper presents the characteristics of a webbased application designed to collect the data measured with different technologies of monitors and translate them into a common PQ data interchange format allowing comprehensive and long-duration grid operation assessment. The unitary formatted data generated by this customized software tool can be further processed by a proprietary software platform for PQ management owned by the network operator. The present version of this conversion tool is applicable only for one product family operating in the local power distribution grid. Further development is planned for integrating other two monitor vendors/families.


Abstract : The research contained in this report describes an analytical framework through which voluntary attrition can be predicted. The approach incorporates Marshallian Utility Theory and a Maximum Likelihood Estimation procedure to evaluate a specific individual's propensity to attrit. The approach was tested twice at the United States Air Force Academy where it was able to correctly predict over a third of the voluntary losses a priori on a by-name basis. These results indicate that the approach has practical usefulness as an operational tool. (Author)


Design and simulation of a low power consuming MMIC chip set is presented in this paper, which is used as an optical receiver and clock recovery circuit operating up to 1.25 Gb/s. This design is based on BTA24 Si BJT transistor array from Bipolarics. Major design innovations such as push-pull self-oscillating mixer and a push-push frequency doubler is used to provide a total power consumption of 247 mW in an area of only 700 /spl mu/m/spl times/700 /spl mu/m.


Abstract Results of an experiment comparing six times of herbicidal application showed that an application of the amine salt of 2,4-D at the rate of 1.0 kg/ha at 50% flowering of the weeds had the most detrimental effect on viable seed production of both winter and rainy season weeds as judged from their germination tests. Delay in the application time of 2,4-D by one week increased seed viability by 150 and 55% in rainy and winter season respectively. Delay of each week in application tended to significantly increase viable seed production. Germination percentage of Triantherna portulacastrum, Digera arvensis, Amaranthus viridis, Amaranthus spinosus, Physalis minima, Phyllanthus niruri, Echinochloa colonum, Acalypha celiata, Flavaria contra-yerba and Cyperus rotundus growing in kharif season when treated at flowering stage was 0,0,0,0,2,0,16,0,14, and 0% respectively as against 44, 66, 76, 58, 82, 66, 90, 26, 92 and 61% respectively for untreated seeds. In the case of winter weeds, germination percentage...


This paper deals with the design and construction of an inexpensive, compact wideband conical corrugated horn using aluminium plates that produce symmetric radiation patterns, good impedance match and low cross-polarisation. One of the objectives of this paper is to produce a low cost, small and compact antenna without compromising the copolar patterns. With these objectives in mind, a unique design methodology was used. The conical corrugated horn was manufactured with aluminium plates. These plates have varying diameters in the centre and when bolted together, slots and ridges also known as the corrugations were formed. These plates have equal widths and changes to the radiation characteristics and bandwidth can be easily made to the design by either removing or adding plates to it. The final design has shown successful results with symmetrical E and H plane radiation patterns, good impedance match with a VSWR<2 over a bandwidth of 6 GHz, low crosspolar levels, compactness and inexpensiveness. This corrugated horn can be used for many applications like feed horn for reflector dishes, spacecraft antennas or radar. And most importantly, the horn has design and application flexibility by changing the dimensions of the aluminium slots to alter its characteristics.


In this study, pulsed dc reactive sputtering of aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films was investigated. The aluminum nitride thin films were deposited on Si (100) using a reactive direct current (DC) unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. The DC reactive sputtering was used in sputtering the aluminum targets in a mixture of argon (Ar) and nitrogen (N2) plasma. Processes of aluminum target sputtering were carried out in an atmosphere of a mixture of Ar and N2. However, pulsed DC reactive sputtering of aluminum targets was carried out at total pressures with N2:Ar ratios from 7:30 to 45:15. In-situ optical emission spectrometry (OES) was applied to obtain the optimal deposition rate and the highest sputtering yield from the effects of flow nitrogen/argon (N2:Ar) ratio and pulse frequency on OES intensity. Thus, we have compared Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of AlN films deposited on Si (100) by DC reactive sputtering with an Al target in the mixture of Ar and N2. FTIR and XRD investigated the quality of the films and the preferred orientation.


Jerzy Kmita's conception of humanistic interpretation is an appropriate reconstruction of communicative discourses, but it does not allow reconstruction of the non-communicative ones. In order to extend the range of application, I have employed John L. Austin's performative-constative distinction, but have expanded its scope from speech acts to any discourses. As a result, the classification of discourse is as follows: explicit and implicit constatives, and explicit and implicit performatives. The efficacy of the new categorisation has been demonstrated with selected discourses sourced from the history of aesthetics.


BACKGROUND
The relationships between occupational stress and depressive symptoms in prison officers have rarely been studied in Japan. Thus, we analyzed the associations between occupational stress factors and depressive symptoms among Japanese prison officers.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study involving 426 male prison officers (20-60-year-old). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. Using this scale and a cut-off point of 50, the subjects were divided into the "depressive group" and "non-depressive group". Occupational stress was evaluated using the Generic Job Stress Questionnaire. Comparisons among the groups were performed with multiple logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS
Of the 426 subjects, 107 were included in the depressive group. After adjusting for demographic and occupational variables, higher scores for the physical environment, role ambiguity, and quantitative workload and a lower score for social support from co-workers were found to be associated with an increased odds ratio of depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
The physical environment, role ambiguity, quantitative workload, and social support from coworkers are associated with depressive symptoms in Japanese prison officers. We hope that educating prison officers about the results of this study and organizational/individual-based improvement strategies will reduce their risk of depression.


Most stereoplotter systems currently in use were designed primarily for producing contouring and profiling outputs on a coordinatograph. Recently, however, there has been an increasing need for topographic information in the form of digital grid-point elevation data. Whereas some existing systems can be used to extract this type of data, they cannot do it rapidly or efficiently. The AS-11B-X system is an experimental model of a new type of system intended explicitly for the collection of digital elevation data. The system was developed for Rome Air Development Center by Bendix Research Laboratories. The system achieves an increase in data collection rates of from 10-50 times that presently being obtained with conventional system at no decrease in accuracy. The AS-11B-X system obtains its high data-collection in parallel using digital processing. A combination of special techniques is used to simplify the digital processing and to reduce the amount of data storage required.


The energy problem is one of the most important challenges in the application of sensor networks. With the development of wireless charging technology and intelligent mobile charger (MC), the energy problem can be solved by the wireless charging strategy. In the practical application of wireless rechargeable sensor networks (WRSNs), the energy consumption rate of nodes is dynamically changed due to many uncertainties, such as the death and different transmission tasks of sensor nodes. However, existing works focus on on-demand schemes, which not fully consider real-time global charging scheduling. In this article, a novel dynamic charging scheme (DCS) in WRSN based on the actor–critic reinforcement learning (ACRL) algorithm is proposed. In the ACRL, we introduce gated recurrent units (GRUs) to capture the relationships of charging actions in time sequence. Using the actor network with one GRU layer, we can pick up an optimal or near-optimal sensor node from candidates as the next charging target more quickly and speed up the training of the model. Meanwhile, we take the tour length and the number of dead nodes as the reward signal. Actor and critic networks are updated by the error criterion function of $R$ and $V$ . Compared with current on-demand charging scheduling algorithms, extensive simulations show that the proposed ACRL algorithm surpasses heuristic algorithms, such as the Greedy, DP, nearest job next with preemption, and TSCA in the average lifetime and tour length, especially against the size and complexity increasing of WRSNs.


•Sub‐Saharan Africa is where HIV/AIDS is most prevalent •Many can't afford the high cost of HIV treatment. •Major Vitamin A deficiency in the area and being malnourished decreases effectiveness up to 90%. Assessment •Check nutrition and set baseline •Reevaluate nutrition periodically; refer to baseline •Review Heifer's HIV/AIDS curriculum •Check HIV/AIDS prevalence and set baseline •Reevaluate HIV/AIDS prevalence; refer to baseline •Report findings


Abstract In this paper we evaluate whether the course "System Analysis and Scenario Technique" at BOKU University can equip students with the necessary competencies to perform transdisciplinary research to foster the integration of science, technology, policy and practice. Furthermore, we investigate what the most effective didactic methods applied in the course are, and whether the course qualifies as transdisciplinary pedagogy. The course follows the simplified framework of a transdisciplinary case study and tries to transfer such an approach into the traditional curricula of Master programs. An online survey among former participants of the course was conducted. Results for the years 2015/16 and 2016/17 indicate that the course indeed has potential to increase transdisciplinary competencies among participants and could therefore qualify as transdisciplinary pedagogy. Students expressed that work with real-world cases and stakeholders from outside the university was the most effective didactic method. However, the study also showed that there were limits in integrating real-world cases within the course. Students complained about the high workload and time constraints. Short-term solutions might include optimizing case selection and student guidance. Long-term solutions beg for a reorganization of traditional Austrian curricula that would allow for the appropriate arrangement of the course with other classes. These results highlight some of the advantages, but also drawbacks of moving transdisciplinary education outside of standard curricula.


The objectives of study were to ascertain the level of genetic variation, and to estimate heritability and expected genetic gains in tree height, diameter and volume of teak clonal test. Thirty five clones were tested at KHDTK Kemampo, South Sumatra. At 5.5 years of age there were genetic variations among clones in tree height and diameter, but the variation was relatively low. The mean height and diameter were 11.53+2.15 m and 12.85+2.73 cm respectively. The contribution of the genetic component to total variation was relatively low, namely 5.39 %, 4.20 % and 6,96% for height, diameter and volume respectively. Individual broad sense heritabilities were 0.06, 0.05 and 0.07 for height, diameter and volume respectively, while broad sense heritabilities on clone mean level were 0.33, 0.26, and 0.29 respectively for tree height, diameter and volume. By selecting the best ten clones, the expected genetic gains for height, diameter and volume were 3.12%, 2.80 % and 10.65%, respectively. Genetic correlation between height and diameter was 1.01.


From methodology of science,the division between science and humanities in the 1950 s results from the demarcation between"the context of justification"and"the context of discovery"in traditional philosophy of science. The conflict between both in the 1990 s comes from social constructivism in the 1970 s. However,the key problem is that both see science as theory,not practice. If we turn from theory to practice,we could discover the multi-dimensions of science in practice,which enable us to consider science from the interdisciplinary research,such as philosophy,economics,sociology,literature ect,in other word,science and humanities are harmonious in practice. Only in this way,we can give science a complete interpretation.Meanwhile,the harmonization would manifest the deep significance of politics,economic and ethics of science.


Painting and poetry, different artistic forms as they are, share something in common. Chinese artists have been exploring and studying the common ground of Chinese painting and poetry in their artistic practice. The perfect fusion of painting and poetry in artistic conceptions and forms is the most distinctive artistic manifestation of the Chinese nation, marking the full-fledged aesthetics of the latter.


Heavy ion irradiation is a unique tool that can be used to simulate and study radiation processes in materials. It can reproduce in a small near the surface layer various microstructural features (dislocation loops, precipitates, voids, etc.) observed in neutron-irradiated materials. Because the irradiation damage is restricted by a few micrometres near surface layer, mechanical properties investigation of the samples was carried out by dynamic nanoindentation technique. This method allows obtaining continuously the hardness and elastic modulus depth profile by one indent. Nanoindentation results acquired in this work showed increase in irradiated layer hardness caused by the increase in irradiation temperature and damage dose.


This chapter deals with human resource management (HRM) in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Employing both process and institutional perspectives in order to understand HRM in MNEs, the chapter focuses more on how HRM systems within subsidiaries of MNEs, particularly in developing country contexts in Asia, are constructed and operate. Using secondary analysis of published and unpublished materials, the chapter shows the various multilevel contextual factors influencing the practices of HRM in MNE subsidiaries. We aim to contribute to the current scholarly thinking of, and stimulate further development in, the field of HRM in MNEs in the future.


Equivalent series resistance (ESR) of chip tantalum capacitors determines the rate of energy delivery and power dissipation thus affecting temperature and reliability of the parts. Employment of advanced capacitors with reduced ESR decreases power losses and improves efficiency in power systems. Stability of ESR is essential for correct operations of power units and might cause malfunctioning and failures when ESR becomes too high or too low. Several cases with ESR values in CWR29 capacitors exceeding the specified limit that were observed recently raised concerns regarding environmental factors affecting ESR and the adequacy of the existing screening and qualification testing. In this work, results of stress testing of various types of military and commercial capacitors obtained over years by GSFC test lab and NEPP projects that involved ESR measurements are described. Environmental stress tests include testing in humidity and vacuum chambers, temperature cycling, long-term storage at high temperatures, and various soldering simulation tests. Note that in many cases parts failed due to excessive leakage currents or reduced breakdown voltages. However, only ESR-related degradation and failures are discussed. Mechanisms of moisture effect are discussed and recommendations to improve screening and qualification system are suggested.


A directional sensor network, where a lot of sensors are intensively and randomly deployed, is able to enhance coverage performances, since working directions can be partitioned into different K covers which are activated in a round-robin fashion. In this paper, we consider the problem of direction set K-Cover for minimum coverage breach in directional sensor networks. First, we formulate the problem as a game called direction scheduling game (DSG), which we prove as a potential game. Thus, the existence of pure Nash equilibria can be guaranteed, and the optimal coverage is a pure Nash equilibrium, since the potential function of DSGs is consistent with the coverage objective function of the underlying network. Second, we propose the synchronous and asynchronous game-theoretic based distributed scheduling algorithms, which we prove to converge to pure Nash equilibria. Third, we present the explicit bounds on the coverage performance of the proposed algorithms by theoretical analysis of the algorithms' coverage performance. Finally, we show experimental results and conclude that the Nash equilibria can provide a near-optimal and well-balanced solution.


The paper deals with the promotion of the national interests in
Macedonia and shows the relation of the identity protection of
the Macedonian citizens with the far-away Taiwan.


Stroke as a complication of carotid endarterectomy has been extensively reviewed. Considerably less attention has been directed to local injuries of the cranial nerves and their branches. Verta,1 Hertzer,2 Imparato,3 DeWeese,4 and Matsumoto5 have reported experience with these injuries. DeWeese found a 9.7% rate of cranial nerve injury, while in Hertzer's series, 15% of patients had nerve dysfunction in the early postendarterectomy period. In 1980, Liapis6 in a preliminary report found that when postoperative examination was supplemented by detailed evaluation by speech pathologists, the incidence of early abnormalities reached 27%. The purpose of this study was to expand upon Liapis' early observation and to clarify the contribution of the speech pathologists in identifying cranial nerve dysfunctions, specifically those resulting in motor speech abnormalities, following carotid endarterectomy.


We present a rank-adaptive optimization strategy for finding low-rank solutions of matrix optimization problems involving a quadratic objective function. The algorithm combines a greedy outer iteration that increases the rank and a smooth Riemannian algorithm that further optimizes the cost function on a fixed-rank manifold. While such a strategy is not especially novel, we show that it can be interpreted as a perturbed gradient descent algorithms or as a simple warm-starting strategy of a projected gradient algorithm on the variety of matrices of bounded rank. In addition, our numerical experiments show that the strategy is very efficient for recovering full rank but highly ill-conditioned matrices that have small numerical rank.


Scientific e-theses are data-rich resources, but mu ch of the information they contain is not readily accessible. For chemistry, the SPECTRa-T p roject has addressed this problem by developing data-mining techniques to extract experi m ntal data, creating RDF (Resource Description Framework) triples for exposure to soph isticated Semantic Web searches. We used OSCAR3, an Open Source chemistry text-minin g tool, to parse and extract data from theses in PDF, and from theses in Office Open XML d ocument format. Theses in PDF suffered data corruption and a loss o f formatting that prevented the identification of chemical objects. Theses in .doc x yielded semantically rich SciXML that enabled the additional extraction of associated dat a. Chemical objects were placed in a data repository, and RDF triples deposited in a triplest ore. Data-mining from chemistry e-theses is both desirab le nd feasible; but the use of PDF, the de facto format standard for deposit in most repositories, prevents the optimal extraction of data for semantic querying. In order to facilitate this , we recommend that universities also require deposition of chemistry e-theses in an XML document format. Further work is required to clarify the complex IPR issues and ensure that they do not become an unwarranted barrier to data extraction and re-use.


The passing year 2020 has turned over a lot in society, economics and business, human behaviour and consciousness. Within a brief period, due to the pandemic situation, we found ourselves in a new reality. Still, we are trying to understand the changes that occurred and how to manage different processes effectively. But even more important is where all these processes will bring us. This very difficult period in human development took place in a completely different economy of impressions, information, knowledge and intelligence. In the framework of the large scale, overwhelming, and promising (however, somewhat controversial) Industry 4.0, we see the development and digital transformation that changed management and managerial thinking. The new fight for human consciousness has extended; methods and techniques of neuro-management, neuromarketing, and artificial intelligence are widely used. The consciousness became the object of influence and manipulation, the key topic in business and politics. This article focuses on several problems of a new quality of management thinking. It suggests and explains the essence and the necessity of hyper thinking as one of the most suitable and valuable approaches to understand and analyze the new contemporary reality and the ongoing processes and approach to education.


Some new titanium(IV) complexes with alkyl xanthates of the type [(μ-Cl) 2 Ti 2 (η 2 -S 2 COR) 2 Cl 4 ] (1), [(μ-Cl) 2 Ti 2 (η 2 -S 2 COR) 4 Cl 2 ] (2) and [ClTi(η 2 -S 2 COR) 3 ] (3) have been synthesized by simple metathetic reaction. The complexes [(μ-. Cl) 2 Ti 2 (η 2 -S 2 COR) 2 Cl 4 ] have been further treated with sodium salts of Schiff bases (derived from isatin and aniline) and sodium tetraisopropoxyaluminate to produce mixed ligand complexes of the type [(sb)TiCl 2 (η 2 -S 2 COR)] (4) and [(η 2 -S 2 COR)TiCl 2 (μ-OPr i ) 2 {Al(OPr i ) 2 }] (5). All these complexes are characterized by elemental analysis (Ti, C, H, N, S and Cl) and spectroscopic data, i.e. UV-Visible, IR, NMR ( 1 H and 13 C) and FAB-MS studies. The above data due to the metal binding sites of the ligands suggested coordination number six for complexes 1, 2, 4 and 5 and coordination 5 for complex 3, tentatively.


Abstract The use of nickel alloys Inconel 600, 625, 706, 718 and Nimonic PE-16 as the alternative to austenitic steels in FW&W of the fusion reactor nas been theoretically justified. It has been shown that nickel alloys are superior to austenitic steels in terms of specific strength, thermal, radiation and corrosion stability in Pb-Li eutectic. The following factors relevant for nickel alloys operational properties have been considered: effects of alloying agents, metallurgical quality, heat treatment, structure stability, phase precipitation, degree of order. Experemental data demonstrate that Russian-developed nickel alloy Inconel 718 Type has high radiation stability at the temperature range 50–100°C (fluence of 5∗10" n/cm2).


A device concentration measurement and sampling of compounds of biological fluids comprising: (a) At least one piece of drilling skin comprising an opening to access biological fluid; (B) an electrochemical cell for measuring the concentration of analyte within the biological fluid, wherein the electrochemical cell comprises two spaced-apart electrodes defining a reaction chamber where the first electrode is porous and on the same side of the chamber reaction as a perforating skin piece and the 2nd electrode is a porous electrode on the other side of the reaction chamber; and (c) a transfer medium components comprising a hydrophilic material in fluid communication with at least one piece of drilling skin and with the reaction chamber, where the pores in the 2nd electrode running through most of the electrode and they are much smaller than those in the first electrode, and are small enough to create a capillary force in the fluid.


The paper presents the results of the study of the relationship between the velocity of propagation of longitudinal waves in a metal with the values of impact toughness and hardness in a wide range of low temperatures. It's been found that with a decrease of temperature, an increase of hardness, a decrease of impact toughness and an increase of the velocity of propagation of a longitudinal wave in the studied metals are observed, and the velocity of propagation of a longitudinal wave has a close correlation with the characteristics under consideration. An increase of the speed of sound with decreasing temperature, in our opinion, is explained by an increase of the thermal conductivity of metals. Thus, by the values of the speed of sound propagation in metals, it is possible to predict the level of its impact toughness, as well as hardness at low temperatures, and, consequently, the tendency to brittle fracture of structures.


Strong metal-support interactions characteristic of the encapsulation of metal particles by oxide overlayers have been widely observed on large metal nanoparticles, but scarcely occur on small nanoclusters (˂2 nm) for which the metal-support interactions remain elusive. Herein, we study the structural evolution of Pt nanoclusters (1.5 nm) supported on anatase TiO2 upon high-temperature H2 reduction. The Pt nanoclusters start to partially evolve into a CsCl-type PtTi intermetallic compound when the reduction temperature reaches 400 ℃. Upon 700 °C reduction, the PtTi nanoparticles are exclusively formed and grow epitaxially along the TiO2 (101) crystal faces. The thermodynamics of the formation of PtTi via migration of reduced Ti atoms into Pt cluster is unraveled by theoretical calculations. The thermally stable PtTi intermetallic compound, with single-atom Pt isolated by Ti, exhibits enhanced catalytic activity and promoted catalytic durability for CO oxidation.


The authors conducted two studies to examine the relationship between attributional style, locus of control, and academic achievement. Using the scales developed by the first author (Park, 1995), the first study compared the attributional style and locus of control of honor students (those who received scholarship) with those who were on academic probation. The results indicated that compared to students on academic probation, honor students were more likely to score higher on internal locus of control and lower on external locus of control. They were more likely to attribute their success to effort and the influence of other people. For failure, the honor students were less likely to attribute their failure to a lack of ability and lack of support from significant others. The second study examined the relationship between the locus of control and academic achievement among three samples: Korean, Korean-Chinese, and Chinese university students. A 40-item locus of control questionnaire and background information section containing sex and self-reported academic grade were administered. The results showed that the Korean sample had the highest internal locus of control score and the lowest external locus of control score. The Korean-Chinese sample, in contrast, scored highest on external locus of control. These results are consistent with past research investigating the cultural influence upon the individual's locus of control. Furthermore, as found in the first study, a significant relationship was found between locus of control and academic grade. For the Korean sample, students with higher academic grades scored higher on internality and lower on externality. For the Chinese sample, students with higher academic grades scored higher on internality. There were no significant differences for the Korean-Chinese sample. Interpretations and implications of cross-cultural and within-sample findings are discussed.


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We describe herein a synthetic strategy for the synthesis of new fluorescent imidazole and phenazine derivatives synthesized from lapachol, a naturally occurring naphthoquinone isolated from Tabebuia species (ipe tree). The photophysical properties and computational details of these compounds have been studied, aiming at gaining a complete understanding of the potential of these derivatives as probes capable of staining mitochondria selectively. Cell imaging experiments proved the capacity of the imidazole derivatives as selective fluorescent mitochondrial imaging probes. These heterocycles present the same staining patterns as MitoTracker Red, corroborating the potential of these compounds as new mitochondria markers permeable to the cell membrane.


Observations show that for disk galaxies the fourth power of the circular velocity of stars around the core of the galaxy is proportional to the luminosity L. This is known as the Tully-Fisher law. Since L is proportional to the mass M of the galaxy, it follows that the fourth power of the circular velocity is proportional to M. Newtonian mechanics, however, tells that the square of the circular velocity is proportional to M. In order to rectify this big difference, astronomers assume the existence of halo dark matter. In this paper we show that general relativity theory yields a term of the Tully-Fisher form. This puts doubts about the necessity and existence of halo dark matter for galaxies.


Two novel schemes for guiding acoustic surface waves along curved paths on isotropic substrates are described. One involves the deposition of a slowing film of graded thickness along the intended path on a dielectric substrate. Paraxial-ray equations are developed to describe the ray paths adjacent to the axis of the guiding film, which are determined by the slowing factor resulting from a variable-thickness deposited film. Diffraction is taken into account through an approximation developed by Pierce for optical beams. It is shown that very thin films are sufficient for a substantial amount of directional control. The other guidance system employs a series of lenses in analogy with the lens guides developed for millimeter waves and optical beams. Some comments are made about thin-film lenses and the theory is developed for the focusing action of a lens formed by a spherical depression in (or protrusion from) the surface of a substrate. A simple analog for determining ray paths over generally nonplanar surfaces is described and applied to nonspherical depressions to evaluate their focusing properties.


A uniplanar compact metamaterial-inspired triple-band dipole antenna is designed and proposed for wireless local area network (WLAN) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) applications. By introducing two pairs of complementary capacitively loaded loop (CCLL) slots into a uniplanar bow-tie antenna, two notched bands can be generated to form a triple-band operation. The antenna is directly fed by a 50- Ω microstrip line and a microstrip-to-coplanar-stripline (CPS) transition as a wideband balun. Antenna parameters, including voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR), radiation patterns, and gain, are obtained by numerical simulations and experimental measurements. The results show that the proposed antenna can provide triple-band operation at 2.21-2.77, 3.33-3.95, and 5.04-6 GHz with the VSWR less than 2 to achieve 2.4/5.2/5.8-GHz WLAN and 2.5/3.5/5.5-GHz WiMAX applications.


Abstract Fused deposition modelling (FDM) process is used extensively for modelling and prototyping applications. But under dynamic loading conditions the FDM based prototypes usually fails due to limited material properties. Further selective material availability in market for commercial FDM setup is another big problem. Some researchers have highlighted the use of reinforced composite wires as FDM filament to improve the mechanical properties. But hitherto no work has been reported on the effect of hybrid reinforcement of SiC and Al2O3 in Nylon-6 matrix to be used as feed stock filament for FDM. In this paper, effect of hybrid reinforcement in Nylon-6 matrix on mechanical properties (like: percentage elongation, yield strength, Young's modulus) has been studied. Further, mathematical relations have been developed and verified for these mechanical properties.


During a period of 18 months 5 Hubble–Space– Telescope GHRS interplanetary H Lyα glow spectra were obtained at different lines of sight from different positions of the earth on its orbit, but despite employment of a radiation transport model that takes into account the angle–dependent partial frequency redistribution, the self-absorption by interplanetary hydrogen, the realistic spectral profile of the solar H Lyα emission line, and a stationary hydrogen model with a heliospheric interface, no common parameter set for density, temperature and velocity of the interstellar hydrogen could be deduced (see our earlier paper Scherer et al. 1997). One possible explanation is the uncertainty in the interstellar hydrogen inflow direction, but even this would not completely dissolve some discrepancies between the theoretical predictions of spectral Doppler shifts and those observed in the HST H Lyα spectra. As we show here the theoretical predictions can be improved by using a time– dependent hydrogen model that also takes into account heliospheric interface effects, long–term variation of the H Lyα irradiance, its influence on the radiation pressure and the long–term variation of the hydrogen ionisation rate. The attempt at finding a common LISM parameter set, fitting 3 HST spectra is improved, though there still remain some discrepancies between data and the theoretical description, mainly manifest over time scales of the order of a year. This residual could be explained by possible variations in the spectral shape of the solar H Lyα line profile adopted as constant to model the radiation pressure and the resonance intensities.


Recent changes in lifestyle have caused an increase in extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) lesions in Japan. The prevalence of severe ICA atherosclerosis with>50% stenosis in the Suita City was 4.4% (7.9% in men and 1.3% in women), being almost equal to that reported in developed western countries. Several clini-cal studies also indicated that atherothrombotic brain infarction particularly due to extracranial ICA lesions has rapidly been increasing in frequency in Japan. The ICA lesions have strong relationships to cardiovascu-lar risk factors and coronary heart diseases.Carotid ultrasonography is a rapid, noninvasive and accurate way to examine ICA lesions. Diffusion MRI studies will provide new knowledge how ICA lesions produce infarcts particularly in borderzone areas.The efficacy of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in the management of severe ICA stenosis was established in US, Canada, and Europe, but not in Japan. Carotid artery stenting remains a matter of investigations. Clini-cal evidence on the effectiveness and limitations of such surgical interventions and medicla management with antithrombotic agents and HMG-CoA blockers should be collected for Japanese patients with ICA lesions.


Our lively and
welcoming Contact Centre team are responsible for providing elite service
experiences for our customers through inbound telephone and email contact. We
are the first point of contact for the vast majority of our customers and as
such we provide the best first impression possible and look to solve as many queries
as possible during the initial contact. The key skills needed involve
exceptional communication skills (both verbal and written), problem solving,
identifying potential changes and engaging with our coaching framework.


Essential Cases: EU Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Irène Vlassopoulou v Ministerium für Justiz, Bundes- und Europaangelegenheiten Baden-Württemberg (Case C-340/89), EU:C:1991:193, [1991] ECR I-2365, 7 May 1991. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Noreen O'Meara.


This article reports the bending fatigue behavior of a four-step 3-D rectangular braided composite at different stress levels. The S–N curve and the stress vs. deflection history were recorded to investigate the bending fatigue behaviors of the braided composite. Specifically, the area of the stress hysteresis loop in each loading cycle and the accumulated area of the whole loading cycles were calculated from the stress vs. deflection history curves. All the integral areas were compared at different stress levels for analyzing the energy absorption. Then, the energy absorptions during the bending fatigue were compared to analyze the energy dissipation mechanisms taking place during the fatigue process. The stiffness degradation was also calculated to show the fatigue damage. The damage morphologies of the 3-D braided composite specimens were photographed to compare the failure modes under different stress levels.


Steric sea level change has been identified as one of the major contributors to the regional variability of sea level trends observed by satellite altimetry for the past two decades. This contribution varies in space and time. The temperature (thermosteric) contribution to sea level has generally been found to be more important than the salinity (halosteric) effect. Based on sea level measurements from satellite altimetry and temperature and salinity data from Argo floats during 2005–2013, we found that the southeast Indian Ocean experiences a large halosteric contribution to sea level change. The conspicuously large halosteric contribution is associated with a freshening in the upper 300 m. Neither local atmospheric forcing such as Ekman pumping and E − P nor halosteric signal transmitted from the western tropical Pacific can explain this freshening. An enhanced precipitation in the Maritime Continent region and the observed strengthening of the Indonesian throughflow are the likely causes.


The diagnosis of late onset sepsis in premature infants remains difficult because clinical signs are subtle and non-specific and none of the laboratory tests, including CRP and blood culture, have high predictive accuracy. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis emerges as a promising diagnostic tool. Entropy and long-range fractal correlation are decreased in premature infants with proven sepsis. Besides this, respiration and its relations to HRV appear to be less. The objective of this study was to determine if analysis of time-frequency correlations between the heart rate and respiration amplitude may help for the diagnosis of infection in premature infants. An estimator of the linear relationship between nonstationary signals, recently introduced, is explored. The tests were performed on a cohort study of 60 premature infants. The results show that the correlation in the low frequency band tended to be higher in the sepsis group.


Fan-written stories that involve three-way relationships among the characters Tom Paris, Harry Kim, and B'Elanna Torres from Star Trek: Voyager capitalize on the homosocial bond between Paris and Kim and the canonical relationship between Paris and Torres to create a queer triangular relationship in which characterization, sexuality, and desire are all reoriented from the canon. Some of these stories relegate the nontraditional relationship to something approximating heteronormativity; in these instances, the story mirrors the canon in its often undesirable depiction of domesticity. In other stories, the triad moves away from dominant cultural expectations like marriage and children; in these stories, the triad seems to endure happily. The key to the stability of the erotic triangle therefore shifts the relationship or relationships away from the burden of hegemonic values, both in canon and in fan fiction.


A total of 32 Clarias gariepinus were randomly purchased at lower Usman Dam, Abuja. The fishes were examined parasitological for gastrointestinal parasites. Four species of helminthes parasites comprising of two Cestodes, one nematode and one acanthocephalan were isolated from the fishes. The Cestodes were monobothrium sp and polyonchobothrium clariae. The nematodes were procamallanus laevionchus and the acanthocephalan which is Neoechinorhynchus rutili. Majority of the parasites were found in the intestine. Infection was limited to fish ranging from 30-36 cm. Fish specimen that were lighter in weight were free from infection, but those found with high number of parasites weighed between 300g-350g. (ALIYU. M. D. AND SOLOMON. J. R. THE INTESTINAL PARASITE OF CLARIAS GARIEPINUS FOUND AT LOWER USMAN DAM, ABUJA. Researcher 2012;4(9):38-44). (ISSN: 1553-9865). http://www.sciencepub.net/researcher. 5


We have investigated apertures on VSALs with different geometries using far-field measurements, near-field measurements, and FDTD simulation methods. We have attempted to correlate the relationship between far-field power and near-field power.


After 20 plus years working in the homelessness and housing sectors I am convinced that ending homelessness in Victoria and Australia is possible. On an individual level it happens every day. There is no reason to believe it cannot happen at a societal level as well.


Marketing automation is a relatively new area within the online marketing landscape. Marketing automation systems are a type of management information systems (MIS) used in customer relationship management (CRM). These systems have gained popularity with large clients who are looking to develop their online strategy. There are several large vendors of marketing automation software. The aim of the paper is to present the evolution of usage of one of the top software tools in the email marketing area, looking for correlations between database sizes and sending volumes, as well as identifying sending volume patterns depending on the calendar. The focus is on a specific software tool used for marketing automation and its largest EU customers by email marketing database size. The core feature of such a tool is sending emails; therefore, this will be our prime indicator of reach that will be presented in correlation to database size, email open and email click rates. Data interpretation and the research implications will be included in the conclusion and will show an important increase in the use of email marketing and strong correlations amongst used indicators.


This issue of the MRS BULLETIN is devoted to high T c superconductivity. It is the sequel to a previous series of articles on the same subject which appeared in the MRS BULLETIN in January 1989. While the articles in the January 1989 issue emphasized the families of high T c superconducting oxides known at that rime, as well as novel processing techniques and thin films, the papers in this issue focus on the physical properties of high T c oxide superconductors. The quality of polycrystalline and single-crystal bulk and thin-film materials has improved to the point where researchers can now make reliable measurements of many physical properties representative of the intrinsic behavior of these materials. As a result, a broad spectrum of important issues such as the nature of the electronic structure, the type of superconducting electron pairing, the magnitude and temperature dependence of the superconducting energy gap, the behavior of fluxoids in the vortex state, etc., can be addressed meaningfully. Presently emerging is a consistent picture of the physical properties of the high T c oxides, which will form the foundation to eventually developing an appropriate theory for the normal and superconducting states of these remarkable materials.


Awareness of the problem of elder abuse was aroused in Norway in the early 1980s. A pilot project conducted between 1991 and 1994, described here, established an important body of knowledge based on casework. Central authorities believe that improved knowledge and competence will result in local change and further development to help the victims of violence.


The Southern Ocean (SO) plays a key role in modulating atmospheric CO2 via physical and biological processes. However, over much of the SO, biological activity is iron‐limited. New in situ data from the Antarctic zone south of Africa in a region centered at ∼20°E–25°E reveal a previously overlooked region of high primary production, comparable in size to the northwest African upwelling region. Here, sea ice together with enclosed icebergs is channeled by prevailing winds to the eastern boundary of the Weddell Gyre, where a sharp transition to warmer waters causes melting. This cumulative melting provides a steady source of iron, fuelling an intense phytoplankton bloom that is not fully captured by monthly satellite production estimates. These findings imply that future changes in sea‐ice cover and dynamics could have a significant effect on carbon sequestration in the SO.


Phonetic decision trees are a key concept in acoustic modeling for large vocabulary continuous speech recognition. Although discriminative training has become a major line of research in speech recognition and all state-of-the-art acoustic models are trained discriminatively, the conventional phonetic decision tree approach still relies on the maximum likelihood principle. In this paper we develop a splitting criterion based on the minimization of the classification error. An improvement of more than 10% relative over a discriminatively trained baseline system on the Wall Street Journal corpus suggests that the proposed approach is promising. Index Terms: discriminative training, phonetic decision trees, state tying, new paradigms


The need for technological and administrative innovation is a recurrent theme in the UK construction reform agenda. The power-effects of the Egan discourse have been well-rehearsed, but arguably these generic recipes are beginning to give way to a more focused prescription; Building Information Modelling (BIM). The current strategy - to mandate the use of Building Information Models for all publically procured projects by 2016 - is seen as a way of integrating the design, construction and operation of publically procured built assets to achieve whole-life value. This aspiration represents a partial turn away from a focus on managerial practices towards a belief in the power of digital practices to achieve the aspiration of integrated working, collaboration and innovation in construction. In this paper we subject the so-called 'BIM revolution' to critical scrutiny. By drawing on theories of digital exclusion, absorptive capacity and policy cycles, we reveal how reform agendas centered on BIM are unlikely to stimulate innovation on a wider scale, but could act to disenfranchise those who are unable (or unwilling) to mobilize the resources necessary to engage with them. This is particularly the case for smaller firms who remain digitally disenfranchised. We argue that a possible corollary of the reliance on BIM and its differential effects could be the industry developing along parallel, multi-speed trajectories, or alternatively, that BIM might not deliver on the aspirations of the current reform agenda. We therefore question the technocratic optimism, or BIM-hype, which pervades the current reform discourse and raise important questions as to the trajectory of industry development that this arguably creates.


The invention relates to the technical fields including natural language processing, information retrieval, medical data mining and the like, in particular to a similar case recommendation system based on word and phrase distributed representation, and a corresponding method applied to an Internet inquiry platform. The system comprises a data module, a recommendation module, an evaluation module and an on-line module, wherein the data module comprises a data acquisition submodule, a data storage submodule, a data preprocessing submodule, a word segmentation submodule and a word vector training submodule; the recommendation module comprises a decision submodule, a semantic similarity algorithm submodule and a recommendation sorting submodule; the on-line module comprises a recommendation submodule and a feedback submodule; the data module transmits effective data to the recommendation module, the recommendation module receives data from the data module and the index of the evaluation module, recommends an associated case and transmits a recommendation result to the on-line module; and the on-line module transmits the recommendation result to a user, and meanwhile, the user returns the feedback of the recommendation result to the on-line module.


Multi-terminal software implementation of online big data platform for high-skilled personnel training in Hubei Province from the perspective of artificial intelligence industry upgrading is studied in the paper. Artificial intelligence technology has brought about the intelligence, automation and intelligence of production, and a large number of the manual workers have been replaced by intelligent machines, which requires a large number of high-quality compound technical skills in artificial intelligence. The application software of the monitoring terminal is the key to then realize the monitoring function. The application program of the monitoring terminal includes modules such as input/output control, data processing and display, and general communication with the host compute and then, with the integration of these models, this paper proposes the novel perspectives. Through the experimental analysis, the results are demonstrated.


I n this paper,maximal weakly open sets are introduced and characterized in fuzzy topological spaces. A non-empty fuzzy open set A of a fuzzy topological space (X, ) is said to be a  fuzzy maximal weakly open set if any fuzzy open set which is contained in A is either 1 or A.


The research paper presents a model for studying both the parameters and dynamics of laser light as a nonlinear dynamic system. The model provides for the measurement of the values of physical quantities by non-linear metrology methods and the analysis of the research findings with topological tools. The model is based on the assumption of interval values of the measured values and the possibility of changing the stationary dynamics into the random one. The model contains an experiment scheme and a procedure for evaluating measurement results. The peculiarity of the model lies in its systemic approach and suitability for measuring and researching stationary and chaotic modes. The model provides for the measurement of the emission parameter values intervals in various modes, of their stability values and time series prediction. Classification of the system dynamics is performed using the fractal dimension. The model can be used both to ensure the stability of the laser light parameters, and to obtain and control random emission.


We inhabit a society where the information that we receive on a daily basis is focused on telling us how to live. Media campaigns constantly blitzkrieg the public with the responsibility to "act more environmentally friendly," to "lose weight," and to seek ultimate satisfaction/security in their brand of "fill in the blank." The sensory regimes employed to deliver these messages use the following common denominators: "buy this product," "live this way," "support this vision/cause/belief system." Comply and "everything will be fine": you will be thinner, safer, happier, and more productive. On a more tactile and surficial level, urban designers - via municipalities - allow developers to enforce a codified definition of how public space should be formed, interpreted, and used. Counter to the narratives imposed or implied by existing power structures, Lefebvre aptly proposes the following: "As with every genuine art, this [the art of living] will not be reduced to a few cheap formulas, a few gadgets, to help us organize our time, our comfort, or our pleasure more efficiently...The genuine art of living implies a human reality, both individual and social, incomparably broader than this" (199)


A series of imidazolium-based ionic liquids with different counterions and alkyl chains were introduced to systematically investigate the host–guest complexation with pillar[5]arene. It was demonstrated that pillar[5]arene presented tunable binding ability with different imidazolium-based ionic liquids in chloroform. Both the counterions and the alkyl chains on the guests played important roles in the host–guest association process.


The calculation method of the equivalent impedance and admittance parameters of the Gas Insulated Line (the Gas Insulated Line is abbreviated as GIL in this paper) grounded by the copper bar is studied and proposed. In consideration of the electrical coupling among the metal shell, the core wire, and the grounding copper bar, the matrix forms and characteristics of GIL impedance and admittance parameters are analyzed. The method of eliminating the coupling among the conductor layers, the grounding copper bar, and the core wire is studied in accordance with the current and voltage boundary conditions. Eventually, the calculation method of equivalent impedance and admittance parameters of the GIL core wire is proposed. The correctness of the calculation method of GIL core wire equivalent parameters is verified by simulation comparisons in PSCAD. This method can obtain the equivalent parameters of the GIL core wire by eliminating the coupling effect of external conductors and simplifies the seventh-order parameter matrix of the multi-layer GIL line to a third-order matrix that only considers the core wire parameters. The calculation speed can be significantly improved for short-circuit current calculation and related analysis of high-voltage AC systems containing GIL by using the equivalent parameters.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to better understand the dramatic transformation of Las Vegas from a local watering hole to a world renowned entertainment city, and to offer predictions of what this ever-changing city might become in the future.

Design/methodology/approach
A series of turning points in Las Vegas' history are presented in a chronological manner, highlighting how external forces have played a role in shaping the city into what it is today. These external forces are then used as the underlying reasoning for a series of scenarios, signposts informing predictions detailing what might happen to Las Vegas in the future.

Findings
The development of Las Vegas has been influenced by a wide range of external factors, from geology, government, organized crime, business visionaries, large corporations and the economy. The continued influence of these factors could lead to drastically divergent outcomes from the loss of the city to a new golden age.

Originality/value
This paper identifies turning points that have helped to shape the development of Las Vegas, and in doing so encourages researchers to consider future scenarios grounded in the underlying dynamics of the turning points.


Abstract Reduction of allograft rejections remains a primary goal for patients after orthotopic heart transplantation. In an open, multicentre, prospectively randomised, parallel group study, patients with primary orthotopic heart transplantation under oral immunosuppressive treatments with tacrolimus (FK506) or cyclosporine (sandimmun) were compared with respect to medical outcome data. As health‐related quality‐of‐life (HRQOL) is also supposed to be an important outcome parameter, it was assessed as a secondary variable in these two patient groups. Patients' self‐rated generic HRQOL was assessed 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months after surgery with the SF‐36 questionnaire, a generic HRQOL instrument. For 70 patients (46 under tacrolimus, 24 under cyclosporine), intent‐to‐treat analyses were carried out. The tacrolimus group showed improvements in the different HRQOL subscales of the SF‐36 compared to the cyclosporine group. Especially the SF‐36 subscales 'vitality' and 'mental health' showed statistically higher scores for the tacrolimus group. Aggregating psychological and cognitive subscales in the 'mental component score', patients treated with tacrolimus showed a statistically significant improvement compared to the cyclosporine group. The assessment of HRQOL variables in the evaluation of treatment effects proved to be an outcome parameter in this study. The results demonstrate the benefit of tacrolimus with respect to the HRQOL of patients, especially in the psychological dimension.


This paper shows up that advertising creativity does not arouse too much interest within the academic framework. It defines the principles causes of the lack of academic interest and analyzes the main authors and studies than have taken notice of the research of this phenomenom. The aim is relaunch the interest in creativity as an academic field taken notice of it through a practical and multidisciplinar point of view.


To explain why my experience of studying Scientology both parallels, and differs from, what other scholars reported in this discussion, I first offer some autobiographical notes on my career as a scholar of new religious movements. Second, I elaborate on the notion of 'Scientology Studies 2.0;' i.e., an approach discussing L. Ron Hubbard's writings on their own merits, rather than focusing on his controversial biography only, and how they inspire the daily life of ordinary Scientologists, quite apart from court cases and sensational media coverage. Third, I mention how a possible dialogue between scholars of different opinions about Scientology is torpedoed by a gatekeeping activity by professional anti-cultists who strive to make this dialogue impossible. In conclusion, I integrate the suggestions offered in this issue by Bernard Doherty with some of my own.


Using different chromatographical methods we have isolated an enzyme from the sporangia of Chlorella fusca Shihira et Krauss var. vacuolata, strain SAG 211–8b, which is responsible for the partial disintegration of the sporangium wall. We refer to it as carbohydrate-releasing activity (CRA). It is an endoenzyme and splits oligosaccharides from the inner layer of the cell wall. In appropriate tests it shows β-d-fucosidase activity (EC 3.2.1.,38): The protein has a molecular weight around 45 kDa and an isoelectric point of pH 4.3; maximum activity is found at pH 5.4 and 60°C, although this temperature inactivates the enzyme quickly. β-d-Mannosidase (EC 188.8.131.52) and β-d-glucosidase (EC 126.96.36.199) were also found in the presence of CRA. These glycosidases were identified as exoenzymes. They are involved in the further degradation of the liberated obligosaccharides.


Current literatures on the relation between audit committee and earnings management do not involve the influence of the former on the latter.Therefore,this paper,from the aspects of independence and specialty of the audit committee,makes a research on such influence and tests it by using listed companies in 2003 and 2004 as a sample.The result shows that its independence is restrictive to earnings management and other characteristics are not significantly related to the quality of earnings management.And besides,audit committee institution has not played its anticipated role in China.