Objective To evaluate the effect of treadmill training on exercise tolerance and central drive in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD).Methods Twenty-two patients with moderate/severe COPD under paracmasis,admitted to our hospital from October 2009 to October 2010,were chosen in our study; treatment group(n=12)undertook a middle-intensity cycle ergometer exercise training program for 12 weeks; while control group(n=10)did not undertake this training program.Before and after the training program,the patients were performed pulmonary ventilation function,pulmonary diffusion function and pulmonary capacity measurements and constant work rate capacity test; the changes of diaphragmatic electromyogram(EMGdi),respiratory flow and volume were monitored during the training program.Changes of exercise tolerance and dyspnea scores were measured before and after the exercise tests.Results Both peak work rate and endurance time after training increased significantly as compared with those before training in the treatment group(P<0.05).Significant reductions in respiratory rate(RR)at isotime,minute ventilation(VE),mean inspiratory volume per second(VT/Ti)and root mean square(RMS)were noted,and the scores of Borg dyspnea scale decreased significantly(P<0.05).The △Borg were positively correlated with △VE,△VT/Ti and △RMS,respectively(P<0.05).Conclusion The exercise tolerance of COPD patients improvs significantly by lower limb exercise training.During a given level of exercises,the requirement of ventilation and central drive of COPD patients is reduced,meanwhile,the respiratory response patterns are changed,which might directly reduce the feeling of dypspnea in COPD patients.

Key words:
COPD;  Exercise tolerance;  Central drive


Abstract In this paper, we use divided differences to give algebraic identities involving a finite number of infinite sets of variables (Propositions 6, 7, and 12). Specializing the sets of variables, we recover the formulas of Carlitz (Corollaries 15 and 20), and an inversion formula of Chu Wenchang (Corollary 16). We also prove a q -analog of their results, and we give a mixed case (Proposition 19).


Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed is often interpreted as a work of Jewish philosophy. This paper argues that it is at bottom a work of political philosophy.


The paper proposes a new method that utilizes Parallel Estimation of Distribution (PED) to obtain disparity map of two images and fuses 3D point-cloud by the disparity. Estimation of Distribution (ED) has several advantages such as low complexity and high efficiency while it also has the shortcoming that it's sensitive to initial samples and the final solution is local optimum but global optimum. In order to exert its merit and overcome the shortcoming, this paper will improve the ED by parallel sampling to diminish the sensitivity with Adaptive Support-Weight method. We called it Parallel Estimation of Distribution (PED). After disparity map is obtained, the two images will be divided into high frequency and low frequency by lifting wavelet respectively and the frequency coefficient of each image will be averaged into fusion frequency. Finally, the fused frequency coefficient will be transformed by inverse lifting wavelet to the final fused image. The experiment has proved that the matching speed is outstanding without losing precision.


This paper discusses how the primary-level intelligence department to effectively carry out the intelligence research and information service from aspects of targeting the information requirements,and promoting information added value,etc.,and puts forward some opinions and suggestions in the light of some problems existing in.


This article analyses Lauren Liebenberg's novel The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam (2008). It argues that the text is narrated from a white Rhodesian girl child's perspective. The utilisation of the girl child's voice authorises an uncensored account of the colonial space - a version that is more revealing of the life in the colony than the adult Rhodesian narrative which is often self-censoring for the sake of political correctness. The article begins by examining the spaces occupied by the white Rhodesian girl child and how she narrates such locations and her representation of the colonial space in general. Later on, the discussion focuses on how a rigid and parochial adult Rhodesian memory affects the psyche and identity of the white Rhodesian youth.


The utility model discloses a water culture flowerpot and solves the problems that the use limit exists in the water culture flowerpot, the water source replacement is troublesome, and the use flexibility is poor in the prior art. The water culture flowerpot comprises a pot body, a base and a planting plate, wherein a water outlet is formed in the bottom of the pot body; a water outlet pipe is arranged at the bottom end of the water outlet; the base is in threaded connection with the water outlet pipe; an annular placing plate is arranged along the periphery of the inner wall of the pot body; the planting plate is arranged on the placing plate; the bottom surface edge of the planting plate is in contact with the upper surface of the placing plate. The water culture flowerpot has the advantages that the structure is simple, the water source replacement is convenient, and the use flexibility is good, and the water culture flowerpot is suitable for different kinds of flowers to form various water culture flower combined modelings.


In recent years, with the rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) technology and swarm intelligence technology, hundreds of small-scale and low-cost UAV constitute swarms carry out complex combat tasks in the form of ad hoc networks, which brings great threats and challenges to low-altitude airspace defense. Security requirements for low-altitude airspace defense, using visual detection technology to detect and track incoming UAV swarms, is the premise of anti-UAV strategy. Therefore, this study first collected many UAV swarm videos and manually annotated a dataset named UAVSwarm dataset for UAV swarm detection and tracking; thirteen different scenes and more than nineteen types of UAV were recorded, including 12,598 annotated images—the number of UAV in each sequence is 3 to 23. Then, two advanced depth detection models are used as strong benchmarks, namely Faster R-CNN and YOLOX. Finally, two state-of-the-art multi-object tracking (MOT) models, GNMOT and ByteTrack, are used to conduct comprehensive tests and performance verification on the dataset and evaluation metrics. The experimental results show that the dataset has good availability, consistency, and universality. The UAVSwarm dataset can be widely used in training and testing of various UAV detection tasks and UAV swarm MOT tasks.


An exact solution of Einstein's field equations in empty space first found in 1985 by Quevedo and Mashhoon is analyzed in detail. This solution generalizes Kerr spacetime to include the case of matter with an arbitrary mass quadrupole moment and is specified by three parameters, the mass M, the angular momentum per unit mass a and the quadrupole parameter q. It reduces to the Kerr spacetime in the limiting case q = 0 and to the Erez–Rosen spacetime when the specific angular momentum a vanishes. The geometrical properties of such a solution are investigated. Causality violations, directional singularities and repulsive effects occur in the region close to the source. Geodesic motion and accelerated motion are studied on the equatorial plane which, due to the reflection symmetry property of the solution, also turns out to be a geodesic plane.


Smart contact lenses with continuous intraocular pressure (IOP) sensors are emerging as an alternate system for monitoring the progression and treatment of glaucoma. To date, such sensors have primarily consisted of strain gauges embedded on traditional contact lenses. This work presents a novel smart contact lens design consisting of a ring-shaped contact lens with a piezoresistive strain gauge. We observe an increase in IOP measurement sensitivity of the device with an increase inner diameter of the ring. Ring-shaped sensors with an inner diameter of 2.7 mm show an increase in sensitivity of up to 7.1% and ring-shaped sensors with an inner diameter of 4.7 mm show an increase in sensitivity of up to 17.9%. It is expected that by incorporating a ring-shaped lens, other strain gauge-based smart contact lenses in the literature would experience similar increase in sensitivity.


Senile cataract has become a serious public health problem as the elderly population is increasing worldwide. As lens with dark iris is reported to have a higher prevalence of cataract, public health concern about cataract in Asia is a bigger issue. Among factors assumed to be involved in the pathogenesis of cataract, ultraviolet radiation (UV) has received much attention in accordance with the recent problem of ozone column depletion. It has been agreed that UV induces cataract in animal and biochemical experiments. However, in epidemiological studies, such agreement has not been reached. There are many factors that should be considered and controlled when investigating the association between cataract and UV. In this review, we summarize major findings obtained so far on the relationship between UV and cataract, and we discuss important factors that may be the cause of disagreement in epidemiological studies. We also point out some of the research foci which should be clarified and propose protective measures against UV induced cataract.


Using mixed xylene as solvent,sodium sulfite as reducing agent,cobalt inα-nitroso-β-naphthol cobalt residue was dissolved and precipitated as cobalt sulfite.Then the precipitation was leached using hydrochloric acid to obtain cobalt chloride solution.The results show that cobalt of leaching from 15.12 g cobalt slag,it is need that mixed xylene of 200 mL,sodium sulfite of 3.27 g,water of 40 mL.Under the optimum leaching conditions of reduction reflux time of 2h,hydrochloric acid(1.0mol/L)of 25 mL,leaching time of 1h,one-stage leaching,leaching of cobalt is 87.48%.Cobalt chloride solution was purified by using hydrogen peroxide to remove iron,and P204 to eliminate other impurities.The cobalt product is obtained using ammonium oxalate to precipitate from purified cobalt chloride solution and by calcination process.


HERRING (WANAI) AND WELL-BEING: ACCOUNTING FOR HEILTSUK VALUES TO INFORM FUTURE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES Maria Shallard Advisor: University of Guelph, 2014 Professor Jennifer Silver This thesis explores relationships between human well-being and herring in Bella Bella, British Columbia. Building from literature that argues that Western thought and contemporary approaches to coastal economic development and resource management neglect to acknowledge let alone understand other ways of knowing and interacting with the sea, the research gathers and presents interpretations, meanings, and values that members of the Heiltsuk First Nation give to the ocean and herring. Interviews and ethnographic investigations reveal how the harvest, management, and trade of herring roe, which herring spawn on blades of kelp, are integral to individual and collective wellbeing. These findings highlight that community practices are externally influenced by contested fishery management options between industry and Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and influence efforts to put Aboriginal fishing rights into practice. Findings highlight a range of benefits accrued through community harvest of commercial herring spawn-on-kelp licenses and demonstrate that the Heiltsuk local management system reflects Heiltsuk perspectives on well-being and sovereignty in territorial ocean space. Drawing upon these findings, a case is made for stakeholders invested in the fishery to think about, and manage, the commercial fishery as an opportunity to improve collective/community well-being, rather than just accumulating wealth.


AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a central energy sensor and regulator of cellular energy state, but the AMPK signaling network is still incompletely understood. Two earlier non-biased screens for AMPK interaction partners and substrates performed in the laboratory identified several candidate proteins, but functional and physiological roles remained unclear. Here we characterized the functional relationship of AMPK with four different protein interaction partners: gluthatione S-transferases (GSTP1 and GSTM1), fumarate hydratase (FH), an E3 ubiquitin-ligase (NRDP1), and vesicle-associated membrane proteins (VAMP2 and VAMP3). Each of these interaction partners seems to have a different function in AMPK signaling, either acting up- or down-stream of AMPK. GSTP1 and GSTM1 can contribute to AMPK activation by facilitating S-glutathionylation of AMPK under mildly oxidative conditions. This non-canonical regulation suggests AMPK as a sensor of cellular redox state. Mitochondrial FH was identified as the only clear AMPK downstream substrate, but surprisingly the phosphorylation site is present in the mitochondrial targeting prepeptide, possibly affecting mitochondrial import. NRDP1, whose expression as a full-length soluble protein was achieved here for the first time, is phosphorylated by AMPK only at low levels. The interaction does neither serve for AMPK ubiquitinylation, but rather affects NRDP1 turnover. Finally, interaction of VAMP2/3 with AMPK does not involve phosphorylation or activation events of one of the partners. Instead, we propose VAMP2/3 as scaffolding proteins that recruit AMPK to exocytotic vesicles which could favor phosphorylation of vesicular AMPK substrates for exocytosis. Collectively, our results add some new elements to the AMPK signaling network, suggesting that it is much more complex than anticipated. In addition to upstream kinases and downstream substrates, regulation of AMPK signaling occurs by secondary protein modifications other than phosphorylation, by effects on protein turnover, and probably also by specific subcellular recruitment of AMPK.


The "La Clapière" area (Tinée valley, Alpes Maritimes, France) is a typical large, complex, unstable rock slope affected by Deep Seated Gravitational Slope Deformations (DGSD) with tension cracks, scarps, and a 60 × 10 6 m 3 rock slide at the slope foot that is currently active. The slope surface displacements since 10 ka were estimated from 10 Be ages of slope gravitational features and from morpho-structural analyses. It appears that tensile cracks with a strike perpendicular to the main orientation of the slope were first triggered by the gravitational reactivation of pre-existing tectonic faults in the slope. A progressive shearing of the cracks then occurred until the failure of a large rock mass at the foot of the slope. By comparing apertures, variations and changes in direction between cracks of different ages, three phases of slope surface displacement were identified: 1) an initial slow slope deformation, spreading from the foot to the top, characterized by an average displacement rate of 4 mm yr − 1 , from 10–5.6 ka BP; 2) an increase in the average displacement rate from 13 to 30 mm yr − 1 from the foot to the middle of the slope, until 3.6 ka BP; and 3) development of a large failure at the foot of the slope with fast displacement rates exceeding 80 mm yr − 1 for the last 50 years. The main finding of this study is that such a large fractured slope destabilization had a very slow displacement rate for thousands of years but was followed by a recent acceleration. The results obtained agree with several previous studies, indicating that in-situ monitoring of creep of a fractured


In this paper we describe our experiments in the automatic search task of TRECVid 2007. For this we have implemented a new video search technique based on SIFT features and manual annotation. We submitted two runs, one solely based on the SIFT features with keyframe matching and the other based on adapted SIFT features for video retrieval in addition to manuall y annotated data.


This paper discusses the development of mobile games for grade five students in learning Mathematics. The study specifically aims to have an additional tool in leaning grade five Mathematics. With the study, the students would be able to identify, define, describe, compare, choose, visualize, simulate, demonstrate and solve grade five Mathematics problems and other related problems. The design and development of the study were made possible by the Technological Institute of the Philippines (T.I.P.) in partnership with the Knowledge Channel (KC) Incorporated. Series of presentations were made during the development, testing, and evaluation of these mobile applications. The study includes the assessment of the developed mobile applications using the Knowledge Channel Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The mobile games had gathered an average mean of 3.67 which was interpreted as "excellent." Aside from the FGD, the study got an average score of 4.65 as an evaluation using questionnaires drafted from the ISO 25010. This checks the quality of a system to the degree to which the mobile applications satisfy the stated and implied needs of its various stakeholders, and thus provides value. Furthermore, pre-test and post-test were conducted to identify if the study was able to help students in learning. Upon comparing the results, the study is proven that mobile applications were able to improve student learning when the games were played. An average rate of 48.86% increase was observed.


Future human well‐being under climate change depends on the ongoing delivery of food, fibre and wood from the land‐based primary sector. The ability to deliver these provisioning services depends on soil‐based ecosystem services (e.g. carbon, nutrient and water cycling and storage), yet we lack an in‐depth understanding of the likely response of soil‐based ecosystem services to climate change. We review the current knowledge on this topic for temperate ecosystems, focusing on mechanisms that are likely to underpin differences in climate change responses between four primary sector systems: cropping, intensive grazing, extensive grazing and plantation forestry. We then illustrate how our findings can be applied to assess service delivery under climate change in a specific region, using New Zealand as an example system. Differences in the climate change responses of carbon and nutrient‐related services between systems will largely be driven by whether they are reliant on externally added or internally cycled nutrients, the extent to which plant communities could influence responses, and variation in vulnerability to erosion. The ability of soils to regulate water under climate change will mostly be driven by changes in rainfall, but can be influenced by different primary sector systems' vulnerability to soil water repellency and differences in evapotranspiration rates. These changes in regulating services resulted in different potentials for increased biomass production across systems, with intensively managed systems being the most likely to benefit from climate change. Quantitative prediction of net effects of climate change on soil ecosystem services remains a challenge, in part due to knowledge gaps, but also due to the complex interactions between different aspects of climate change. Despite this challenge, it is critical to gain the information required to make such predictions as robust as possible given the fundamental role of soils in supporting human well‐being.


The idea of using data compression algorithms for machine learning has been reinvented many times. Intuitively, compact representations of data are possible only if statistical regularities exist in the data. Compression algorithms identify such patterns and build statistical models to describe them. This ability to learn patterns from data makes compression methods instantly attractive for machine learning purposes.

In this thesis, we propose several novel text mining applications of data compression algorithms. We introduce a compression-based method for instance selection, capable of extracting a diverse subset of documents that are representative of a larger document collection. The quality of the sample is measured by how well a compression model, trained from the subset, is able to predict held-out reference data. The method is useful for initializing k-means clustering, and as a pool-based active learning strategy for supervised training of text classifiers. When using compression models for classification, we propose that trained models should be sequentially adapted when evaluating the probability of the classified document. We justify this approach in terms of the minimum description length principle, and show that adaptation improves performance for online filtering of email spam.

Our research contributes to the state-of-the-art of applied machine learning in two significant application domains. We propose the use of compression models for spam filtering, and show that compression-based filters are superior to traditional tokenization-based filters and competitive with the best known methods for this task. We also consider the use of compression models for lexical stress assignment, a problem in Slovenian speech synthesis, and demonstrate that compression models perform well on this task, while requiring fewer resources than competing methods. The topic of this thesis is text mining. However, most of the proposed methods are more general, and are designed for learning with arbitrary discrete sequences.


This paper introduces an approach to model order reduction that retains structural information in the reduced order model (ROM). Neither traditional methods such as aggregation nor modern techniques that employ H/sub /spl infin// theory maintain a link between the structure of the original model and the ROM. In other words, the state variables and the coefficients of the ROM have no connection to the state variables of the original model. In contrast, the algorithm developed in this paper, which uses tree-structured transfer functions derived from bond graphs, maintains a subset of the original state variables in the reduced order model and maintains structural significance in the state variable coefficients. The advantage of the tree structure is that the ROMs are available directly from a single transfer function. The algorithm is outlined and the properties of the reduced models are indicated. The algorithm and three modern methods are applied to an eighth-order electromechanical system, and the absolute errors between the original and ROMs are compared.


Background: Spheno-orbital meningiomas en plaque are located in a complex area between the orbital and intracranial compartments and characterized by carpet like growth that infiltrate the dura mater and surrounding bone. Objective: This retrospective study analyzes the postoperative clinical and radiological outcome of twenty three patients with spheno orbital meningiomas en plaque operated upon in the Neurosurgery Department, Cairo University Hospitals. Patients and Methods: Patient selection: patients with spheno orbital meningiomas en plaque. Operation: surgical resection of the tumor, involved bones and periorbita via fronto-temporal approach. Results: Between Jan 2010 and December 2013, twenty three patients were operated upon for treating spheno-orbital meningiomas en plaque via fronto-temporal approach and followed up clinically and radiologically for a mean of 18 months. During clinical follow up, improvement of proptosis was achieved in fifteen patients (78.9%) out of nineteen patients presented with proptosis at a mean of 2 months postoperatively, visual improvement occurred in seven patients (58.3%) out of twelve patients presented with decreased visual acuity within the postoperative 2-12 weeks. Postoperatively, lid and orbital swelling occurred in all patients (100%), cranial nerve palsy in ten patients in which seven were transient (30.4%) and three were permanent (13%), subgaleal CSF collection occurred in eleven patients (47.8%), intra cerebral hematoma in one patients (4.4%) and two patients (8.7%) developed postoperative fits. Radiological follow up revealed total resection in sixteen patients (69.6%) and no recurrence was encountered. Conclusion: Spheno-orbital meningiomas en plaque are located in a complex anatomical region. Surgical management is not uniform and should be tailored to fit each case. Radical tumor excision can be achieved by proper microsurgical dissection, aggressive bony removal and wide orbital decompression with low postoperative morbidity, good clinical outcome and less rate of recurrence. However, greater sample size and longer follow up would aid further documentation.


In this paper, cobalt (Co)-electrode FBAR devices fabricated on seven-layered Bragg Reflectors are presented along with their resonance characteristics. ZnO films are used as the resonating material in FBAR devices where the Co electrode is 3000 thick. All processes are preformed in an RF magnetron sputtering system. As a result of characterization, the resonance characteristics are observed to depend strongly on the quality of ZnO film and Bragg Reflectors. In addition, the FBAR devices with W/ reflectors show good resonance characteristics in term of return loss and quality-factor (Q-factor).


Objective To investigate the relationship of serum levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein(Hs-CRP) with CD14 C260T promoter polymorphism in patients with coronary artery disease(CAD) .Methods Serum levels of Hs-CRP were determined in 240 patients with coronary artery disease.C260T Promoter Polymorphism of the CD14 gene was screened by PCR-RELP assay.Results The genotype distribution of the C260T polymorphism of the CD14 gene was as follows:TT in 106 of 240 patients(44.2%) ,TC in 82 of 240 patients(34.1%) and CC in 52 of 240 patients(21.7%) .Patients with TT subtype had increased Hs-CRP levels compared with carriers of the C allele(P0.05) .A higher percentage of T allele homozygotes had Hs-CRP levels 3 mg/L(P0.05) .Conclusion This study indicated T allele homozygotes of CD14 gene may be an independent risk factor in systemic inflammation with stable CAD.


: The paper here states, the comparative study of frequency control of MGP system with convectional PI and fuzzy logic controller is done. The electrical power generation has done by non renewable energy sources in most parts of the world. The carbon emissions during the production of electricity challenge the environmental issues which lead to pollution. So, there is a necessity for the interconnection of renewable energy sources with grid for the reduction in usage of non renewable energy sources. But, interfacing of renewable sources to the grid is not an easy task. The reduction of inertia in the power system, the frequency instability problems may limit the usage of renewable sources in the interfacing with the grid. The motor generator pair can deal with all the above problems very effectively. The source grid characteristics are analyzed by simulation using convectional PI controller and fuzzy logic controller. The fuzzy logic PI controller gives better results when compared with convectional PI controller. The results were compared by simulation whether the fuzzy PI controller gives best results or convectional PI controller.


will the privileged find God and be empowered to challenge these idolatries. The poor are already resisting these powers. The privileged can gain from them an understanding that God alone is our source of security, life is precarious, and the idols of whiteness and wealth are futile. And finally, that the presence of evil needs to be clearly named, resisted and dismantled. This book should have broad appeal. I can see it being used in an undergraduate ethics course I teach on homelessness, and it would be an excellent text for seminary courses. It would also be useful for congregations who work with the poor and/or are committed to social justice. Dunlap does an excellent job of identifying and explaining the theological beliefs that enable the people without homes who she works with to persevere, find hope, and resist the inhumane conditions they face. She focuses on accompaniment with those in extreme poverty without falling into the hyper-individualism of neoliberalism that discounts structural oppression and emphasizes changing individuals instead of unjust systems. She realizes the importance of communal safe and sacred spaces for people who suffer from these systems, while also challenging the idolatries of our culture that cause suffering and extract sacrifice from people living on the margins. As she writes, people need an income and a home, but they also 'crave work, purpose, respect, and community' (p. 25). I question whether Dunlap's work is more an ethnography of unhoused Blacks in the South from the Evangelical/Pentecostal tradition than it is an ethnography of the unhoused poor. I think the focus on one group, however, is useful for its particular insights, and a focus on African Americans is especially important considering the structural racism that has put this demographic most at risk of homelessness. It would be interesting to compare ethnographies of other racial/ethnic groups of people who are unhoused to see common and/or different theological themes. While Dunlap says she wrote this book to support other chaplains from her demographic who work with people in extreme poverty, she doesn't offer much in-depth reflection, apart from one short section on cross-cultural pastoral care, as to how her ethnography will support other chaplains. In that brief section she identifies several challenges: how to accept beliefs while also identifying what is not of God (e.g., violence, shame, resignation) and how to deal with beliefs counter to one's own (e.g., cancer serving God's purpose). Dunlap's concluding chapter is a call for privileged parishioners to learn from the poor and challenge white supremacy and neoliberal capitalism, not about how chaplains should approach their work with the poor. Her reflections and conclusions are nevertheless insightful for all of us who seek to dismantle unjust structures while simultaneously accompanying those who are most negatively impacted by these systems of power.


A promising avenue in the development of pulsed chemical HF/DF lasers and amplifiers is the utilization of a photonbranched chain reaction initiated in a two-phase active medium, i.e., a medium containing a working gas and ultradispersed passivated metal particles. These particles are evaporated under the action of IR laser radiation, which results in the appearance of free atoms, their diffusion into the gas, and the development of the photon-branching process. The key obstacle here is the formation a relatively-large volume (in excess of 103 cm3) of the stable active medium, and filling this volume homogeneously for a short time with a sub-micron monodispersed metal aerosol, which has specified properties. In this manuscript, results are presented for an extensive study of a gas-dispersed component of a H2-F2 laser active medium, including novel techniques for the formation of a two-phase active medium with specified properties; aerosol optics; degradation of the dispersed component; and beam stability of a chemically-active aerosol. These results should help lead the way to creating powerful, reliable and inexpensive self-contained pulsed sources of coherent radiation with high energy, high laser beam quality, and the possibility of scaling up the output energy.


Urban flooding has been a frequent phenomenon in recent years caused by the increase in maximum stormwater runoff arising from abnormal rainfall due to global warming, urban development, and development of lowlands according to population inflows. In order to respond positively against abnormal precipition in the city, it is necessary to check the GWI (Green Water Infra) effect and effectively utilize the existing stormwater detention tanks and treat stormwater to prevent local flooding. In this study, Overflow Type stormwater drainage methods are evaluated as a method of preventing urban flooding in abnormal precipitation using the Dynamic Wave Analysis SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Comparing and analyzing the Upward Watergate Type and Overflow Type, it was analyzed that the Overflow Type reduces the maximum flood discharge by 61 % and the total flood volume by 56 % in the rainfall of Typhoon Kong-rey. The application of the Overflow Type and the natural-pneumatic drainage method to the rainfall of Typhoon Soulik resulted in a 20 % reduction in maximum flood runoff and a 67 % reduction in total flood quantity. Therefore, as a solution to the abnormal rain fall, it is possible to improve the existing stormwater detection tank and install additional facilities. It is expected to be economically possible to strom drainage under limited conditions.


This special issue on water education is dedicated to our colleague, Peter Oliver, who died on November 20th, 2012. Peter was a leading and passionate water and environmental educator in Australia. His photograph appears on the cover. We would like to honor Peter by talking about how his life and work embodied and epitomized many of the key themes of this issue. Peter was a highly experienced educator and academic, with an approach to water education developed out of three decades of teaching in secondary schools, universities, community contexts, and professional workshops. Many of Peter's insights grew out of first hand teaching in classrooms, field trips, community meetings, and forums, of listening to and interacting with people from schoolchildren, through commercial fishermen and farmers, to water professionals from around the world. Certainly, Peter reflected critically on his educational practice and related it to academic knowledge and theory, as his papers in this collection discuss, but his approach was born from and centered on practical, thoughtful doing. Peter was continually involved in a process of learning how to be – and aspiring to be – a better educator. Peter believed in getting students into the field: out into the environment where they could engage with it and the local people who knew it best, see and experience environmental issues first hand, be challenged to analyze those issues and think about responses and solutions. This is the immersive education that Bill Dennison and Peter write about in this issue. Experiential education was his stock in trade: field trips to investigate water resources issues in places like the Brisbane River, Stradbroke Island near Brisbane, the Mary River, the Murray Darling Basin, and the Kalgan River in Western Australia. For Peter, experiential education in the environment was closely linked with problembased learning – learning through engagement and analysis of actual problems in real-world contexts rather than classrooms. Getting out into water catchments and river basins enabled students to see and experience development impacts and environmental changes first hand. Learning in the field was one of the best ways to enable students to see and experience the complex relationships between people, water, and development. Field experiences pose real-world problems that require analysis from a range of different disciplines and the integration of those different knowledges. Field experiences require cooperation among students in groups, learning from different stakeholders, and consideration of technical and management solutions in relation to actual contexts. Peter believed that problem-based learning was one of the best ways to enable students to integrate a range of disciplinary knowledge, social perspectives, and ways of thinking about water management problems into their work. Peter felt strongly that universities and university courses did not "do" integration very well. He was deeply skeptical about formal courses teaching integration or transdisciplinary methods. He would say, "The moment you put integration in a specific subject, you've killed it, it's not integration anymore!" Integration and making 1


Softer and low cost protection alternatives, such as structures made of geotextile sand containers (GSC) are often used instead of more expensive and hard coastal structures made of concrete or rubble material. Although the effect of the deformations of the sand containers is significant, no stability formula is available to account for those deformations. To achieve a better understanding of the processes that affect the stability of GSC-structures several types of hydraulic model experiments and analyses were performed. The processes investigated were: (i) permeability of GSC-structures, (ii) wave-induced loads on the sand containers, (iii) wave induced flow on GSC-structures, (iv) internal movement of sand in the containers, (v) variation of contact areas among neighbouring GSCs during wave action, (vi) types of displacement of GSCs within a coastal structure and finally (vii) the effect of the deformations on the stability of GSC-structures. In addition, a flow model and two structural dynamic models were further developed, validated and applied towards a better understanding of the processes involved in the wave structure interaction. Based on the experimental and numerical results, analytical stability formulae that account for the deformation of the individual GSCs for each type of observed displacement are developed. Stability formulae for each type of coastal structures made of geotextile sand containers such as breakwaters, revetments, dune reinforcement and scour protection systems are proposed.


This article examines the mass media in Estonia from their origins, with the appearance of the first newspaper to the present day growth and prospects for development. Using surveys conducted by the authors it examines changing attitudes towards press, radio and TV, and looks at the range of media available to the population. It argues that the Estonian press, never as strictly controlled as the Russian media, has played an important role in politicizing the Estonian people. Finally it examines the question of the autonomy of the Estonian media in relation to Moscow and central state controls.


Provided is a wire transmission dual direction driving device. The wire transmission dual direction driving device is connected with a plurality of driven objects in a transmission mode. The wire transmission dual direction driving device comprises a plurality of dual direction transmission mechanisms, a group of vertical driving mechanisms, and a group of horizontal driving mechanisms. The plurality of the driven objects are sequentially arranged in a spaced mode, the plurality of dual direction transmission mechanisms are connected with the plurality of driven objects in a transmission mode, the group of the vertical driving mechanisms is sequentially connected with the plurality of dual direction transmission mechanisms in a transmission mode and the dual direction transmission mechanisms are used for driving corresponding driven objects to conduct vertical rotation, the group of the horizontal driving mechanisms is sequentially connected with the plurality of dual direction transmission mechanisms in a transmission mode, and the dual direction transmission mechanisms are used for driving corresponding driven objects to conduct horizontal rotation. By utilizing of a wire transmission technology, the wire transmission dual direction driving device can achieve dual directions of a vertical direction and a horizontal direction to the plurality of driven objects, such as photovoltaic cell panels, and is compact in structure, and high in device utilization rate.


In this article, solutions to three open problems on ordered commutative monoids posed in Evans et al. (2001, Semigroup forum, 62, 249-278) [4] are presented. By an ordered monoid, we always mean a totally ordered monoid. All the problems are related to the class of ordered commutative monoids which are homomorphic images of ordered free commutative monoids.


Five derivatives of oxazolone were synthesized by using Erlenmeyer azlactone synthesis. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of these oxazolones was evaluated on selected skin microorganisms. Preliminary screening was performed to identify growth inhibition, and MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration) was determined for the active compounds.
Results obtained were very promising and the most active compound in our screen was the dimethoxy substituted oxazolone, which demonstrated a significant enhancement of
antimicrobial activity both against selected bacterial and fungal strains. The MIC value of the highly active compound was found to be 12.5μg/ml.


With the development of the market,the high temperature library's role is diminishing,while low temperature storage increase.According to these changes in the market,many cold storage plan to transform the high temperature library in order to improve the overall return of the cold storage.Structure will be recalculated because of temperature change.Based on the research and calculations,due attention should be paid to several issues in the construction.Finally,the ground insulation layer must be thick enough to ensure the ground not frozen.Also,internal diversion tunnel must be set to channel the new and other water bodies.Advanced monitoring equipment and emergency facilities should be installed if necessary.


As a result of the corona pandemic, lives both at workplaces and universities have changed. Working "from anywhere" and studying online have come to stay. The pandemic has also caused significant changes in the demand and supply of labour, there are industries where job losses are a problem, and there are industries where there is labour shortage or there is a need to acquire new skills quickly, some people are even looking for a new profession. Before the pandemic, in Finland, about 36% of the workforce was considering a change in career and a new profession. The corona pandemic added a special boost to these needs. One reason could be the lack of digital skills. According to a recently published study [1], half of the working population is lacking in digital skills and has difficulties with digital tools. This causes stress and burnout. The so-called "digital leap" and remote work have increased the need for learning new digital skills. As a result, there is an exceptionally high need for boosting skills, digital and others, in Finland. This is the need universities of applied sciences have recognized and responded to by collaborating with businesses and labour authorities to increase the amount and variety of continuous learning offering. This paper aims to describe a development project, where recommendation systems and AI together are used to guide in the selection of open studies. We have co-created a joint artificial intelligence powered digital environment which is conceived as an ecosystem - a matching tool consisting of our study offering and the need for skills and labour in the world of work. In the system, people who would like to upgrade their own skills and knowledge have an option of taking studies matching their needs from our universities of applied sciences.


ABSTRACT Two routes to thieno[3,2-b]pyrrolenines are developed and new spiropyranes and spirooxazines based on thienopyrrole are synthesized. Benzene ring in the chromene part of the spiro molecule is also replaced with thiophene one to give new merocyanines.


We have used the Cerro Tololo Inter‐American Observatory telescopes and spectrographs to record emission lines in η Carinae from 3093 to 8956 Å with a gap between 4432 and 5696 Å. A resolving power of about 20,000 was used throughout. Accurate wavelengths, peak intensities relative to the local continuum, and line identifications are presented. The data are briefly discussed with respect to the state of ionization present, the presence of oxygen lines, and the use of [S ii] lines to derive a lower limit on the local electron density. We also tabulate the wavelengths of interstellar absorption lines and diffuse interstellar bands.


This paper uses cointegration and fractional cointegration techniques to test for purchasing power parity (PPP) between the Canadian and the US currencies during the floating exchange period from 1974:1 to 2001:12. The focus is on whether the deviations from the cointegrating relationship possess long memory and may be well-described by a fractionally cointegrated process. The Johansen–Juselius procedure does yield an appropriate cointegration vector, thereby supporting PPP as a long-run relationship. However, it is also found that the deviations from PPP do not follow a fractionally cointegrated stationary process, so that PPP at best holds only weakly even in the long run.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to trace the impact of a major management scholar, Herbert Simon.Design/methodology/approach – A novel approach was employed in identifying the most influential research articles that have made use of Simon's two great management works, Administrative Behavior and Organizations (with James March). The list allowed the close analysis of the nature of the influence wielded by Herbert Simon on management scholarship. The process of analysis was guided by a targeted search. Google Scholar allowed the compilation of a list of top‐cited research articles that made use of the two books. The 25 most‐cited articles associated with each were then categorized by their subject matter and examined for the impact of Simon's research.Findings – As measured by citations, Herbert Simon's influence on management scholarship has been immense. Administrative Behavior and Organizations have incurred huge numbers of citations, more than 7,000 each. Moreover, not one of the 50 papers popul...


Energy-weighted sum rules for scattering of electrons by nuclei are investigated in regard to their information content and accuracy. Theory and experiment are compared for a two-nucleon system. A new theoretical analysis of the existing experiments is given. The previously existing discrepancy between theory and experiment is removed.


This paper presents a parametric study on the effect of four green-roof types on outdoor/indoor temperature and cooling demand under four different climates and three urban densities using co-simulation approach with ENVI-met and EnergyPlus. Results reveal an outdoor nighttime warming effect of not more than 0.2 ◦C which is most obvious with the semi-extensive while the outdoor and indoor cooling effect ranges between 0.05–0.6 ◦C and 0.4–1.4 ◦C, respectively depending on the green-roof type, urban density and time of the day. These daytime temperature reductions also vary per prevailing climates and follow this order: hot-dry, hot (or warm)-humid, and temperate which can be explained by the interplay between solar intensity/air temperature and relative humidity between the regions. In a hot-humid region, the evaporative cooling potential of greenery is dampened when compared to hot-dry region. This is also true for region with low solar intensity and humidity like the temperate region. In terms of cooling demand reduction, 5.2% was observed in hot-dry climate on the hottest day of the year with full-intensive green-roof while the least saving of 0.1% was found with semi-extensive green-roof in temperate climate. In general, for both outdoor temperature and cooling demand reduction, semi-intensive green-roof was found more effective than its full-extensive counterpart while the higher spatial greenroof is most important for indoor temperature reduction irrespective of the leaf density of the greenery. Therefore, the intent of green-roof installation should be a determining factor for the type and spatial extent to be implemented. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Abstract Through the tabular morphology of northwestern part of the Middle-Atlas in Morocco, numerous uncovered monogenetic volcanoes arise structured of pyroclastic product layers and lava flows. Our fieldwork results witness a wide-ranging volcanic shape spectrum, as cones, maars, tuff-rings, and cone-maar mixes, generally associated with a later lava flow discharge that could develop many surfaces and appearances. There are withal sundry eruptive products such as pahoehoe lava, scoria, tuff, lapilli, peperites, base-surges, bombs, etc. This monogenetic volcanic field of practically 1000 km2 offers remarkable eruptive landforms, referred to as the largest, and the youngest volcanic field in Morocco, which consists of a large area within the Ifrane National Park. This fieldwork study provides a renewed volcanic geomorphological classification table and GIS data to be used by a wide public range for both educational and geo-touristic interest and access effectively to such a high-mountain natural museum. In the event that these volcanic structures were appropriately dealt with, the high educational scientific content and the notable touristic vocation would almost certainly create business openings and new financial wages for neighborhood populaces. This work focuses to share our outcomes and emphases the scientific value about the monogenetic volcanic field around the tabular Middle-Atlas in Morocco.


Radar and acoustic sounder data are compared with in situ turbulence and meteorological data collected with fast response sensors on a carriage traversing a 300-m tower. The carriage data reveal a fine structure of sharp laminae within elevated inversions that is associated with laminated echoes in the sounder records. The zones of sharp gradient contain narrow regions of enhanced structure parameters of temperature and humidity that presumably account for the radar and acoustic returns from those zones. In these cases the temperature and humidity profiles are remarkably close (negative) replicas of each other, greatly simplifying the interpretation of radio refractive index from temperature data. A model of specular reflection is compared with a Bragg backscatter model, and it is concluded that specular contributions from the observed gradients can exceed the Bragg return even for back-scatter if radar wavelengths greater than a few meters are used. For bistatic configurations the specular contributions should commonly exceed the tropospheric scatter contribution when elevated stable layers are present.


This study was undertaken to answer the following question : At what point do students achieve the highest gain in writing skill-after completing eight writing problems, after completing 16 writing problems, or after completing 24 writing problems? The question is based on a study made by Dr. Thomas Inman and reported in The ABCA Bulletin, September 1970, pp. 1-6. The H, is that there is a difference among the three groups due to writing practice, even though Dr. Inman found no relationship.


Waste iron sheet is introduced into Fenton system to release Fe2+ that can provide a catalytic oxidation of nitrobenzene in industrial wastewater.Experiments confirm:the mass of Fe2+ which released by solid phase at pH value of 3 is enough for catalytic oxidation and its high concentration in output is solved by flocculation which can also further reduce the content of organic mater.Wastewater treated by Fenton oxidation-flocculation at optimality conditions can attain national Grade Ⅱ standards.


Purpose

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness among the elderly in the western world. It represents not only a dramatic reduction in patients' quality of life but also a significant burden to the general healthcare system. Yet, despite the severity of the disease much questions regarding the pathways of disease formation and progression are still unanswered and viable treatment options still undiscovered. Here, we evaluate the cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory potential of fisetin and luteolin in human retinal pigment epithelial cells exposed to increased oxidative stress.

Methods

ARPE-19 cells were treated with 4-Hydroxynonenal (HNE) to simulate high levels of oxidative stress. Thereafter, fisetin or luteolin were added to the culture medium. The MTT and the lactate dehydrogenase assays were used to assess cellular toxicity. Inflammatory cytokines, as well as activation of transcription factors were measured using the ELISA method and a DNA-binding transcription factor assay. To analyze the importance of SIRT1 and related pathways, the experiments were repeated after specific SIRT1 knock-out using siRNA. Levels of intracellular SIRT1 were measured using Western Blot.

Results

Fisetin and luteolin protected retinal pigment epithelial cells from oxidative stress-induced cell death and exhibited potent anti-inflammatory properties even after the initial insult. These effects seemed to be independent of NF-κB or SIRT1.

Conclusions

Bioactive polyphenols, fisetin and luteolin are powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant agents and show potential for the development of drugs aimed at specific intracellular pathways that affect inflammation in AMD.


Abstract The structure of the metamorphic rocks forming the Southern Alps in South Westland, New Zealand, is described. Metamorphic grade increases north-westwards from greywacke and argillite east of the Main Divide through Chlorite Zone schists to high-grade schists and gneisses of the Biotite, Garnet, and Oligoclase Zones. The metamorphic zonal sequence is interrupted and repeated by post-metamorphic strike faults and folds, and terminated on the north-west by the Alpine Fault. After geosynclinal sedimentation in the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, the thick geosynclinal sediments were deformed and metamorphosed in the middle Jurassic to early Cretaceous Rangitata Orogeny. Three movement phases separated by relatively static periods of metamorphic crystallisation are distinguished. In the first movement phase (F1), movements were dominantly translational, forming large recumbent folds with axial surfaces dipping south and south-west. The F1 movements were accompanied by Chlorite Zone metamorphism an...


This paper examines empirically the determinants of decentralization of decision- making in the firm for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that tend to be highly centralized. By decentralization of decisions we mean the delegation of decision rights from the owner or manager to the plant supervisor or even to floor workers. Our findings show that the allocation of authority to basic workers or a team of workers depends on firm characteristics such as firm size, the use of internal networks or the number of workplaces, and workers characteristics, in particular, the composition of the laborforce in terms of education and seniority and whether or not workers receive pay incentives. External factors such as the intensity of competition and the firm s export intensity are also important determinants of the allocation of authority.


Photo Response Non-Uniformity (PRNU) noise can be considered as a spread-spectrum watermark embedded in every image taken by the source imaging device. It has been effectively used for localizing the forgeries in digital images. The noise residual extracted from the image in question is compared with the reference PRNU in a sliding-window based manner. If their normalized cross correlation, which servers as a decision statistic, is below a pre-determined threshold (e.g., by Neyman-Pearson criterion), the center pixel in the window is declared as forged. However, the decision statistic is calculated over the forged and the non-forged regions when the sliding window falls near the boundary of the two different regions. As a result, the corresponding pixels of the forged region are probably wrongly identified as genuine ones. To alleviate this problem, we analyze the correlation distribution in the problematic region and refine the detection by weighting the decision threshold based on the altered correlation distribution. The effectiveness of the proposed refining algorithm is confirmed through the results of detecting three different kinds of realistic image forgeries.


The hypoglycaemic activity of ethanolic extracts of the leaf and seed of Telfairia occidentalis were compared. Effect of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of the leaf and seed of the plant on blood glucose concentration in rats was also compared. The extracts were administered orally to white albino rats (Wistar strain) and blood was collected from the tail vein of the rats and glucose concentration determined at 0, 1, 2 and 4 hours after treatment with One Touch glucometer. The results showed that aqueous extracts of leaf and seed of the plant did not lower blood glucose concentration at the dose administered (500 mg/kg). The ethanolic leaf extracts reduced blood glucose concentration significantly while the ethanolic seed extract did not. It could therefore be concluded that the hypoglycemic component(s) of Telfairia occidentalis is/or are in higher concentration in the leaf than the seed, and is better extracted by ethanol than water.


Variational optimization. Generally direct marginalization is intractable. In this case we can consider estimating an equivalent objective by minimizing an upper bound U(popX , pX , q) with a variational model q such that (1) it is easy to compute, and (2) it is tight for an optimal q (henceforth tightable). For instance, EM minimizes the KL divergence by minimizing the minimization of a tightable upper bound −ELBO(popX , pX , qZ|X) on H(popX , pX) where qZ|X estimates the intractable posterior pZ|X [6, 13]:


Coloration of a virtual source is defined as the difference between the timbre of a virtual source and that of a reference real source. The coloration of virtual sources created by amplitude panning techniques has been previously studied and modeled in anechoic conditions using a simple auditory model implementing binaural loudness summation. In this study, the same model has been tested in reverberant conditions. The performance of the model was tested by conducting listening tests that analyzed the coloration of virtual sources perceived by listeners. The results reveal that the model is able to predict coloration very well for the optimum listening area in listening rooms.


Damaged bridge over the Waipa River, at Ngaruawahia. Photograph taken by Albert Percy Godber in 1917. Dated from other images in the Godber album at Pa1-q-102. There are photographs of people and horses being transported across the Waipa River on a punt, pulled by winch, because the bridge was unable to be crossed having collapsed in 1916.
Source of descriptive information, client wrote to say bridge collapsed 20 December 1916 and temporary ferry service used for over ten months after.
Inscriptions: Album page - Damaged bridge over Waipa River. Ngaruawahia.
The bridge collapsed on 20 December 1916, for over 10 months afterwards a temporary ferry service carried traffic from one bank to the other. See 'Pack horse to jet : the story of Waingaro from 1968 / by Geoffrey Seavill' and 'Raglan County hills and sea : a centennial history 1876-1976' for further information.
Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s).
Physical Description: Dry plate glass negative 6.5 x 4.75 inches
Processing information: Previously our description said 'There are photographs of people and horses being transported across the Waipa River on a punt, pulled by winch, presumably because the bridge was unable to be crossed.'


In the last decade after Slovenia became independent state and started to become gra-dually included in socio-economic system of European Union, we could follow changes in the structure of active population, especially decrease in the numbers of employed in industries and increase in the numbers of employed in tertiary and quartary sector. Increase of forests and social "prelog" also on the land which could be used for farming according to its natural character.


The copolymerized propylene-butyl of which the 'solubility parameter' almost coincides with that of hydrocarbon and organic solvent gases such as toluene, xylene, diethyether, chloroform and acetone, is chosen as a material of the sensing membrane coated on the quartz resonator. It is found that copolymerized propylene-butyl-film coated quartz resonator microbalance gas sensor exhibits high sensitivity and excellent selectivity for these gases, especially for toluene and xylene gas, suggesting that the 'solubility parameter' is effective to functional design of the sensing membrane of quartz resonator gas sensors.


Cyberbullying of women and girls is not just a violation of human rights, it is a global phenomenon that is destroying the lives of women and their families around the world. Using a hermeneutic documentary methodology, the objective of the study was to determine the legal mechanisms for the use of social networks as a means of combating gender violence and thus outline the main problems of their application of the law. Everything indicates that social networks, as an effective means of forming positive public opinions, can form a positive image of women and the appropriate attitude of men towards them, and as well as contribute to combating violence on the Internet. The system for combating gender-based violence consists of prevention, protection, criminal responsibility, and a comprehensive gender policy. It concludes that international gender policy standards have been found to be based on a model of "real equality", which is ensured through the achievement of equal opportunities, equal access to opportunities and equal performance.


Molecular biology laboratories inevitably require the use of precursor chemicals, which could be processed into drugs.Therefore, it is urgent to regulate the management of precursor chemicals in laboratories of molecular biology.In this paper, various kinds of precursor chemicals were introduced, and problems regarding the management of these precursor chemicals are presented.Several issues concerning the standard management of the frequently used precursor chemicals in molecular biology laboratories are discussed, and a number of appropriate measures and advice are provided.


INTRODUCTIONThe family in Southeast Asia is a diverse social institution that has been shaped, and continues to be shaped, by many influences. Historically, the influences came from East and South Asia. Therbom (2004), for example, thought that the "rigid patriarchies of Confucianism, Islam, and Catholicism were mellowed by Buddhist insouciance in family matters, and by Malay customs" (p. 11). More recently, the family has been besieged not only by rapid social and economic changes but also demographic changes such as declines in fertility, increases in non-marriage as well as migration, from rural to urban regions as well as international migration. It is likely that historical events such as the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia and the American-Vietnam war have also affected these patterns. While the historical patterns have shaped the traditional family forms in Southeast Asia, an important question is if, and how, these more recent influences have changed family forms. Have family forms converged as Goode expected, or have they adapted to the challenges of rapid social, economic and demographic changes by taking a multitude of forms (McDonald, 1992)? We will endeavor to answer this question by examining household structure that, as Goode (1965) pointed out, has implications for family forms because household structure dictates the types of family interactions that takes place.Southeast Asia is composed of eleven states that lie south of China and east of India. It is an incredibly diverse region by any criteria, i.e., socially, culturally, economically, politically, and even geographically. Even so it has increasingly been thought of as a region (McGregor, 2008); this is the case both from an insider's emerging identity as a Southeast Asian as well as an outsider's shorthand for a grouping of proximate countries. We will focus on household structure and composition that will provide some insights into the basis of the organization of society. In this paper we compare the household structure of six Southeast Asian countries. In addition to outlining the main patterns, we will also focus on (i) household size, (ii) household structure, (iii) matr?locality andpatrilocality, (iv) female-headed households, and (v) the living arrangements of the elderly. We will compare the patterns in the six countries to see if there are any significant similarities and differences. The opportunity to compare and contrast the household patterns of these countries will allow us to see if there are "Southeast Asian" patterns that transcend the diversity of this region.In this paper we examine household patterns for six countries in the region-Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Philippines-for which comparable data are publicly available. Over the last century, population of Southeast Asia grew from just under 80 million to nearly 600 million today (Hirsehman & Bonaparte, 2012). The six countries in this study are at different stages of demographic transition. While mortality rates and fertility rates have declined, fertility levels currently range from 1.49 in Thailand to 3.52 in Laos (Demographic and socio-economic indicators are presented in Table 1). Universality of marriage once a feature of much of Southeast Asia is being replaced by a trend towards later and less marriage in some countries. Once predominately rural, the share of population living in urban areas has increased to between one-third and one-half of the population (with exception of Cambodia); this has been accompanied by a concomitant decline in share of employment in agriculture. The expansion of education and gender parity in the region is equally impressive, though not uniform with the exception of Cambodia and Laos, with more than half of the students enrolled in secondary schools. Almost all countries in the region have witnessed economic growth and transformation in media and communication with proliferation of cellphones and penetration of traditional and new media. …


Proponents of biotechnology assert that this technology offers enormous opportunities to poor farmers and low-income consumers in developing countries. However, this study has revealed that very little can be accomplished in solving the problems of the rural poor in Africa unless a holistic approach is used to address the problems that they face in maintaining sustainable food production, security, and poverty reduction. The study was conducted to establish the constraints that limited the farmers in Kenya from adopting tissue culture (TC) banana technology. The solutions to these constraints were also examined. The study was done by use of structured research and was carried out in 12 districts of Central and Eastern Kenya where one hundred and seventy farmers were interviewed. In addition seventy-two traders and transporters in 36 markets in the region were also interviewed. The results of the study revealed that the TC banana technology has a great potential to the farming community in Kenya and has enormous provision for extended local market. However, the constraints identified by the stakeholders need to be addressed adequately before the potential is realized. INTRODUCTION Over 200,000 small, land holders growing about 70,000ha (equivalent to 2% of total cultivated land) undertake banana production in Kenya. The crop is of paramount importance in food security and income generation. About 1,000,000 t is produced with an estimated value of over US $80 million, equivalent to 50% of domestic horticulture production. Household consumption accounts for about 24 % of total production (Maed, 1997). The banana trade, mostly dominated by women, is a major rural income generating activity. For instance, in some of the major banana growing areas (Kisii and Central Kenya) banana earns farmers over one billion shillings (US $ 12.5m) per year. At the family level, a small-scale farmer can earn Ksh 1600 (US$20) weekly by selling 5-10 banana bunches. The banana trade is also a major source of revenue to local councils. An on-going study estimates weekly revenue earnings of over 0.5 million shillings (US $ 6,250) for over 50,000 banana bunches traded in Central/Eastern Kenya. (Muthee et al., 2001). Banana production in Kenya has undergone three phases of development. The predominant East African highland bananas (AAA) have possibly been cultivated for over a thousand years, and are common in all farming systems. In the early part of the last century, due to increased travel, additional cultivars were introduced with their local names denoting places of origin in the region. The second phase came between the 1950's and 1970's with introduction of improved cultivars i.e. Cavendish cultivars and new agricultural technologies e.g. fertilizers, spacing, pruning etc. In the late 1990's the last phase occurred with the introduction of tissue cultured bananas. Tissue culture (TC) Proc. XXVI IHC – Sustainability of Horticultural Systems Eds. L. Bertschinger and J.D. Anderson Acta Hort. 638, ISHS 2004 Publication supported by Can. Int. Dev. Agency (CIDA) 442 technology stemmed out of a need to control diseases and pests that had spread through the conventional practice of planting suckers in all banana growing regions in Kenya and which has resulted in declined yields. The technology was also needed to multiply quickly and en masse adequate planting material of indigenous and exotic banana clones for the farming community. Prior to TC technology the country experienced a shortfall of banana planting material due to frequent droughts, disease, pests, limited suckers per stool, high transportation costs and other environmental pressures. It has also been shown through experiments that TC bananas are high yielding and produce better quality bunches than those produced through the conventional suckers. Attempts to introduce TC technology to the small-scale farmers in Kenya showed that various other issues needed to be addressed for successful adoption of TC technology. This paper reports on results of a study that sought to look into constraints and possible sustainable solutions for the adoption of TC banana technology. The goal of the study was to improve productivity and income generating capability of bananas through introduction of TC bananas and addressing various production and marketing constraints. The objectives for the study were: • Identify constraints that prevent farmers from adopting TC technology; • Apportion constraints to various solution systems to take action; • Search for practical and sustainable solutions for constraints. METHODOLOGY The survey collected primary data using a structured research survey approach. Individual interviewing was done for the whole survey. Two questionnaires were used. The first was the farmers' questionnaire, which included all aspects of costs of production, home consumption, on farm sales and constraints that limit production. The survey covered districts in Central and Eastern Kenya and 170 farmers were interviewed. The second was the market questionnaire, which was divided into three parts. The first part covered the general characteristics of the markets and was answered with the help of the marketing officers. The second part covered all aspects of local banana trading. At each market a resident trader was interviewed. The last part covered aspects of transporting bananas to other markets. A transporter/ external trader was interviewed at each market. The market survey covered 36 markets in Central and Eastern Kenya. Various computer programs were used to analyze the data. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results of this study revealed a number of constraints that hinder the adoption of TC technology. Tissue culture bananas require more advanced husbandry practices than the traditional sucker-planted bananas, which in most cases are cultivated under minimum cultural practices. About 20% of the farmers complained of high production costs and about 10% lacked production inputs (Fig.2). In an analysis of 170 TC banana farmers in Central/Eastern Kenya, the number using some additional farm inputs was; manure (96%) fertilizer (30%) chemicals (6%) and watering (11%), (Fig. 1). The high use of manure is due to the fact that farmers in the area use semi and zero-grazing systems of cattle husbandry Inorganic fertilizers and chemicals are available in various agri-supply shops, but only a few can afford to purchase them. TC bananas require a great deal of water, especially after planting. Drought (Fig. 2.) was ranked highest by 40% of 130 farmers and only 11% had irrigation water (Fig. 1). Small holder banana production in Kenya is mainly rainfed making TC banana vulnerable to drought conditions. This creates additional limitation to the adoption of the TC technology. This problem can be addressed in the short run by incorporating water-harvesting technology in TC technology research, which could include roof water harvesting, shallow water holes and in the long term, promoting smallscale irrigation projects. Traditionally cultivated bananas have been in the field for several decades without replanting and have thus declined in yields (below 10 t/ha) due to aging. Farmers require replacing the aged plants with the more vigorous and higher yielding TC plants. However,


An effective method is introduced to refit a diesel into diese LPG dual fuel engines under the condition of unchanging of the dieselengine.A research program is conducted for the exhaust emission characteristics of this diesel LPG dual fuel engines.The experiment result shows that the amount of soot and NO x emissions are reduced whereas that of the HC and CO emissions are increased for this diesel LPG dual fuel engines.


Charcot arthropathy is a non-infective destructive process manifesting as dislocation, periarticular fracture or a combination of both, in patients with peripheral neuropathy The classification and staging of charcot arthropathy assists us in decision making and appropriate management of these patients. Clinical presentation and diagnosis will be discussed as well as management techniques for the different stages of arthropathy. Neuropathic ulcer management, including new ideas, will be briefly covered.


This paper presents the results of a study of the effect of preliminary heat treatment and ball milling of aluminum powder on the cold spraying process and the properties of the obtained coatings (porosity and microhardness). The ball milling of aluminum powder leads to an increase in specific surface area, a decrease in apparent density and a decrease in the value of the crystallite size, which indicates a decrease in grain size. It is shown that coatings deposited from ball milled powders have slightly higher coatings hardness averagely. The profilometry of aluminum coatings obtained under the same conditions from the initial and processed powders did not reveal significant changes in the form of coatings and their typical dimensions (width, thickness), which indicates the absence of significant changes in the deposition coefficient of the initial and processed aluminum powders. Ball milled powders on average correspond to slightly higher hardnesses of coatings.


Immigration has been an important topic throughout America's history. Studies have linked nationalism to attitudes towards immigrants, and literature has repeatedly distinguished different types of nationalism. This study looks at measures of two different types of nationalism (civic and ethnic nationalism) and tests the measures on the impact of attitudes towards immigrants. It was predicted civic and ethnic nationalism would both be predictive of negative attitudes towards immigrants, but that measures of ethnic nationalism would have greater predictive value than measures of civic nationalism. Data was used from the 2014 General Social Survey, with analysis being run using SPSS. Findings supported the hypothesis that ethnic measures of nationalism was more predictive of negative attitudes towards immigrants, but due to the small set of measures of civic nationalism, findings are supportive of the first hypothesis but require further research. keywords: civic nationalism, ethnic nationalism, immigrants, attitudes


The prototype of the supersonic beam source was installed in LHD and started to be used as a "direct gas puff" (DGP) system. Figure 1 shows the insertion system of the DGP. One of the upper ports of LHD is used. The vertical position of the valve is adjustable so as to inject the pulsed gas plume from both private and non-private regions. The present system is based on the inertial cooling and is unable to be used a series of plasma shots at the inserted condition. The water-cooled system is planned to be added next year. The inner structure of the Piezo-electric valve used in the DGP is shown in Fig. 2. When the Piezo-electric element is lengthen, the element pushes one end of a lever, which results in opening the valve at the other end of the lever. The rough sketch of the orifice of the valve is shown in Fig. 3. The diameter and the length of the orifice is about 2 mm and 14 mm, respectively. The maximum gas flow rate of the valve is 100Pa·m and is determined by the small gap between the valve and the orifice. This means that the gas expands mainly at the seal and hits the inner wall of the orifice and then is transferred in the orifice and exits to the open space with the speed corresponding to the wall temperature, not with supersonic speed. Though with sonic speed, the DGP still has a superior characteristics; the valve is faced to the plasma and the gas plume reaches the plasma directly without the interaction to the inner wall of the vacuum vessel. In addition, the movable system of the valve enhances the flexibility of the experiments on plasma fueling. Revised version of the valves are under investigatin. Fig. 1 Insertion system of the valve.


Preliminary findings from a photoluminescence (PL) study of 30 keV boron implanted and furnace annealed silicon are presented. When different laser excitation wavelengths were used: namely, 1064 nm, and 532 nm; the observed PL emission yield changed substantially. Since the excitation volumes of these two wavelengths are significantly different in silicon due to sample absorption, they provide a means of probing defect related luminescence as a function of the excitation depth. An additional advantage of using the 1064 nm excitation is the inclusion of the phononic silicon (Raman) band which overlaps with the PL spectrum allowing it to be used as a scattering quantum counter. This provides a means of normalising the luminescence yield for samples prepared under different conditions.


XU Te-li is the founder of new China's education cause. When he was in charge of education at the Ministry of the Central Soviet Area, he had achieved a lot in the following aspects: making education for revolution with revolution approaches, setting an example to make compulsory education universal, eliminating illiteracy, founding normal education, compiling books and making education regulations, etc.


Advances in communication technology have enabled geographically and temporally dispersed teams to work collaboratively in virtual teams. Organisations worldwide are using or considering using virtual teams to take advantage of the skills located elsewhere to drive innovation and to lower costs. We have seen growing support for creative/innovative activities to be undertaken by virtual teams and/or noncollocated contributors. On the other hand some high technology organisations suggest that face to face (f2f) collaboration is essential for them to sustain their levels of innovation. The speed and frequency of large scale technological changes has increased, driving organisations to implement new innovations in an environment of virtual teams, in order to survive and prosper With many organisations using virtual teams, and implementing new innovations to sustain and grow their business; the factors that make an innovation implementation successful in virtual teams has become an important area for study. This study investigates the factors required for innovation effectiveness in virtual teams using a case study approach of an organisation employing virtual teams that has implemented a radical innovation implementation. The innovation implemented was sourced from outside the organisation. Harbindar Sangha Student Number: C3153562 VIII


Pyramidal structures are defined which are locally a combination of low and highpass filtering. The structures are analogous to but different from wavelet packet structures. In particular, new frequency decompositions are obtained; and these decompositions can be parameterized to establish a correspondence with a large class of Cantor sets. Further correspondences are then established to relate such frequency decompositions with more general self- similarities. The role of the filters in defining these pyramidal structures gives rise to signal reconstruction algorithms, and these, in turn, are used in the analysis of speech data.


Lemoine Levy Conjecture, probably the least known of the 'Goldbach Conjectures', states that every positive odd integer > 5 is a sum of a prime and double of a prime. We present a simple sieve procedure for finding all existing solutions to the problem for any given odd number > 5. The Lemoine Levy Conjecture states that every odd number greater than 5 can be written as a sum of prime and double of a prime, i.e., for N > 2, we have 2N + 1 = p +2q for some prime numbers p and q. What we refer to as the Lemoine Levy problem, is a question of finding any, or all, solutions for any given odd number > 5. We write the Lemoine Levy 'equation', as 2N+1 = 2p + q, because our sieve will apply to the doubles of p. In what follows, we give a complete solution to this problem. In [4] we presented a sieve algorithm that finds all solutions to the Goldbach problem for any given 2N > 4. The solution to the Lemoine Levy problem, follows a similar pattern, depending on the fact that given a congruence


The photovoltaics industry has been growing at extraordinary rates over the past ten years as a result of increased government support for the technology. Yet supporting the technology is expensive and there is uncertainty over the future rate of technological progress for photovoltaics. Experience curves have been an important part of the argument to justify continued government support of as well as private investment in solar technologies. In this thesis, I argue that a more sophisticated understanding of experience curves and their underlying mechanisms will be important if we are to preempt a renewable energy "bubble." I begin by providing a brief history of photovoltaic technology and policies that have supported end photovoltaic end markets. Next, I examine the use of experience curves for photovoltaic technology, finding numerous conceptual inconsistencies. Finally, based on an economic analysis of almost 55,000 photovoltaic systems in the United States, I attempt to disaggregate the dynamics of cost-reduction in photovoltaic systems, with a particular focus on the behavior of the systems integrators/installers. My analysis includes measures for experience, competition, and installer characteristics. This thesis contributes a better understanding of cost dynamics in photovoltaics and calls for a more sober and more sophisticated discussion about cost dynamics when considering renewable energy policy. Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Richard K. Lester Title: Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering [This page left intentionally blank]


This work the effect of the addition of Calcium Oxide (CaO) in the compaction and sintering of powder metallurgical iron Ancoor Steel 1000® is studied. Iron samples were made with proportions of: 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% by weight of CaO. The samples were sintered in a luminescent discharge furnace, in an atmosphere of H2+Ar at a temperature of 1150°C. XRD analysis was used to determine the formation of compounds, this analysis evidenced the formation of: hematite and magnetite, which were found both on the surface and in the volume. A characterization of the ability to protect against corrosive effects was carried out using the EIS electrochemical impedance spectroscopy method on the samples, in a solution of 1000ppm of chloride, with this procedure it was found that at a concentration of 0.5% and 1% CaO, the electrochemical impedance value is increased with values of 11.7MΩ, 2.2MΩ respectively.


A profile of deep seismic sounding across the South Caspian depression is described. The peculiarity of the structure of the depression is the reduced thickness of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic folded...


The symmetries of a block circulant matrix significantly reduce the computational expense of the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the variable velocity inverse problem for a generic reflection seismology model. As a result, the decomposition does not suffer from edge effects or parameterization artifacts that are associated with small model spaces. Using this approach, we study the eigenvector and eigenvalue characteristics for a generic model of a size as large as is used with a variety of iterative inversion techniques (>100 000 parameters). Singular value decomposition of the raypath inverse problem of a discretized generic seismic model having one reflector indicates that the eigenvalue distribution for the inverse problem is nonuniform, with a large concentration near 0 and a gap near 0.4. All but the long horizontal wavelength reflector‐depth variations cannot be uniquely resolved from velocity variations. Lateral velocity variations serve to significantly reduce the ability of seismic data to resolve reflector depth for most of the horizontal wavelength components shorter than twice the cable length. As a result, automatic velocity analysis methods may not be able to resolve reflector variations when the velocity field is allowed to take on an arbitrary structure.


Lutein was proved to have macular degeneration (MD) protection and therapy activities and therefore considered as a functional factor applied in food and pharmaceutical products with a bright future. Lutein was prepared from the flower of marigold. In the flower, lutein exists in ester form. In this study, lutein esters were prepared from marigold flower and then mixed with dietary oil. SD rat was fed with the mixture by gastric administration. After 2 h, blood was collected. Carotenoids were extracted from the blood for HPLC assay. Data from HPLC analysis suggested that only lutein monomer could be observed. This observation proved that lutein esters were hydrolyzed during its digestion and absorption. This conclusion proves a possibility to apply lutein esters in functional food and medicines directly.


At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general purpose heavy-ion detector. ALICE is also studying proton-proton collisions, both as a reference for lead-lead and proton-lead collisions, and in physics areas where ALICE is competitive with other LHC experiments. Heavy flavours (charm and beauty quarks) are formed in the initial stages of the collision through gluon fusion, which is a dominant process at the LHC. The study of heavy flavour production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, provides an important test of perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations, particularly in the forward rapidity of ALICE (-4 < η < -2.5), where their production is expected to be sensitive to small gluon Bjorken-x values, in parton distribution functions (PDF). In addition, the investigation of heavy flavour production in proton-proton collisions, also constitutes an essential baseline for the corresponding measurements in heavy ion collisions. In this study, the production of heavy flavours is measured via the contribution of their muonic decay to the inclusive pT -differential muon yield, as a function of relative charged particle multiplicity, reconstructed in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV.


Cantaloupe growth was influenced by using imidacloprid (Admire ®) insecticide to control, suppress, or reduce whiteflies. The growth rate of cantaloupe was evaluated at regular intervals after crop emergence and a rate response was observed with greater growth with respect to increase in Admire® rate. Following at planting time applications, at 3 and 4 weeks after treatment (WAT) cantaloupe plants had more foliar growth and a greater number of leaves with increasing Admire® rate. At 5 to 8 WAT, cantaloupe vines exhibited greater growth with increasing rates of Admire ®. Introduction An emergency exemption to allow use of imidacloprid (Admire ®) insecticide for whitefly control in melons has made it possible to establish and grow a crop in the presence of high pest population pressures. Several methods of application of Admire® have been evaluated and soil applications at planting time placed under the seed have demonstrated acceptable efficacy against whiteflies. The developing crop's roots grow and Admire® is taken up from the soil then translocated to the foliage and reduces the whitefly impact. This field study was conducted to evaluate and determine an effective range of rates of Admire® applied at planting time to compare cantaloupe growth rate over time as a result of reduced effects from whiteflies. Materials and Methods A small plot field study was conducted at the University of Arizona Maricopa Agricultural Center. The test was established as a randomized complete block design with four replicates. Beds were listed and shaped with available equipment on 40 -inch centers and plots measured 75 feet in length. A Monosem air planter was set up to inject the Admire® in front of the planter dropping the seed and approximately 1 -inch below the seed in the soil. A shank with an attached tube fitted with a flow regulator delivered the Admire ®2F in 4.6 gallon/acre of water pressurized by CO2 at 30 psi. Only one of four rows was planted to provide a 10 ft buffer between rows. Cantaloupe cv. Earlimark was planted for the test on August 2 and immediately furrow irrigated after the Admire® application and planting operation. Cantaloupe emerged and established a stand and at regular intervals, stand counts were made by counting the total number of plants per 10 ft of row selected randomly within a replicate for each treatment. The growth stage of each plant was recorded by counting the number of leaves. Vine length was measured for a vine on each of ten randomly selected plants in each plot. Results and Discussion Cantaloupes emerged and established a stand for all Admire® treatments and stand counts at 3 and 4 weeks after treatment (WAT) showed an average range of 19.8 to 25.3 plants per 10 ft of row (Table). At 3 WAT, the untreated 141 check had 14.5 plants /10 ft primarily at the 3 -leaf (If) stage of growth, less than 1 plant/10 ft at the 4 -1f stage, and 6.3 plants/10 ft at the 2 -1f stage. Melons treated with Admire at 0.063 and 0.125 lb a.i. /A (0.25 and 0.50 pt. product/A) were similar to the untreated check with predominately 3 -1f stage plants and 2 -1f stage plants. The melons treated with Admire® at 0.25 and 0.50 lb a.i. /A (1.0 and 2.0 pt. product/A) also had predominately 3 -1f plants but had a greater number of 4 -1f plants instead of 2 -1f plants. Melons with Admire® at 2.0 pt. /A had a greater number of 4 -If plants(8.5 plants) than the melons treated with 1.0 pt. /A (2.5 plants). At 4 WAT, melons with Admire® at 2.0 pt./A was the most advanced with 5.9 plants at the 7 -to 8 -1f stage. The untreated melons were primarily at the 5 -1f stage and some at the 6 -1f stage. Melons with Admire® at 0.25 pt./A were only slightly advanced over the untreated with 5to 6 -1f plants and 1.8 plants at the 7 -to 8 -1f stage. Melons treated with Admire® at 0.50 or 1.0 pt. /A were predominately at the 6 -1f stage and progressing to the 7to 8 -1f stage with 2.9 and 2.0 plants, respectively. At 5 to 8 WAT, melons vines continued to grow and a rate response was observed for the vine length. Melons had longer vines when treated with higher rates of Admire ®. Untreated melon vines grew to an average of just over 1 ft in length. Melons treated with Admire® at 0.25 pt/A grew to about 16inches at 7 WAT and did not exhibit much growth after at 10 WAT. Melons continued growing up to 8 WAT when treated with Admire® at 0.50 and 1.0 pt./A. Vines measured about 2 ft in length with the higher rate treated melons being slightly longer at 27.0 inches. Melons treated with Admire® at 2.0 pt. /A had the longest vines relative to all other treatments at all rating dates and continued growth up to 10 WAT at 32.9 inches. Admire at 2.0 pt/A was the most effective rate to reduce whitefly impacts on cantaloupe growth as demonstrated by rate of growth during the season. The rate of growth advanced with a higher number of leaves at 4 and 5 WAT and vine length was greater up to 10 WAT. At 050 to 1.0 pt/A of Admire ®, treated melons grew comparably up to 8 WAT and showed an improved rate of growth relative to the untreated check or 0.25 pt/A treated melons.


In this paper I consider how debates in critical cartography about the classificatory and calculative logics of the map might be renegotiated through the concepts of "making-kin," "sympoesis," and the chthonic. Between Haraway's (2014) Staying With The Trouble and Foucault's (2002) writings on mathesis and taxinomia in The Order of Things, I argue that a more situated understanding of mapping—as an entanglement between people, tools, landscapes, cultures—might realise a more open, and more attentive, way of mapping. I return to the popular case study, OpenStreetMap, to excavate how the use and misuse of taxonomic and mathematical logics through its collaborative and amateur affordabilities shed light on different ways of sorting-with the world. I argue that, in the unexpected emergence of proposed classifications (and despite the disciplining power of cartographic discourses), roots of a new and more inclusive cartography linger in the archive, waiting to be fertilsed.


Theoretical research of ultrasonic wave propagation in austenitic steel welds was performed and integral equations were applied to the problem of planar ultrasonic wave scattering in anisotropic polycrystal medium. The problem was solved using the Born approximation and analytical calculations were carried out for an austenitic metal weld and the weld thermal influence zone. The calculated values for scattering coefficients were used for calculating the attenuation of ultrasonic signals passing through austenitic welds. Energetic and geometric factors of ultrasonic wave intensity attenuation in austenitic welds were considered and formulas to calculate the deviation angle of the acoustic beam from wave normal and acoustic beam deformation coefficients in a weld were obtained as well. With the example of a single V-butt weld in 12H18N10T steel (analogous 321 H steel) a calculation of the value of ultrasonic signal attenuation and a prediction of the ultrasonic beam outcoming point location were carried out...


Its common that musicians consider faster to handwrite music notation rather than doing the same task through the use of a computer music editing tools (e.g. Finale, Sibelius, Musescore). The major reasons for this seems to be: 1) the fact that main input computer interface (i.e. keyboard) was developed for textual symbols and so it limits the speed of musical symbols insertion even with the aid of a mouse. 2) the lack of an unified method of musical data insertion and/or edition for all music editing tools and specially a method that explores recurring musical patterns. This work presents the basis for a new method of music notation data entry that explores the identification and retrieval of perceptually recurring musical patterns, that can be represented by stenographic textual symbols. This way the musician can quickly notate a music score by the identification and attribution of stenographic patterns. This work aims to establish the basis for a unified stenographic pattern model for speed music notation that will be faster to write and cognitively easier to learn than handwritten musical notation. Key-words : Musical Patterns, Stenography, Music Notation


This paper introduces the concept of total teacher effectiveness for facilitating educational reform and improvement, using target oriented curriculum (TOC) change in Hong Kong as an example. TOC change is a complex process that involves preparing, changing, and reinforcing teachers in multiple domains at multiple levels. Teacher effectiveness includes three domains of teacher competence: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. In order to achieve successful curriculum change, it is necessary to develop teachers' cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains at individual, group, and school levels. Research suggests that the process of curriculum change (from traditional to TOC) can be divided into three stages: the unfreezing stage, the changing stage, and the refreezing stage. The unfreezing stage prepares teachers at all levels to be able to implement TOC, developing their readiness in the three domains. The changing stage involves teachers in actually implementing TOC. The refreezing stage is designed to maximize all the advantages gained from the TOC change, reinforce the positive effects, and eliminate potential negative effects. The TOC change process may be top-down, bottom-up, or a combination of the two, depending on the characteristics of the teachers and other school factors such as the authority hierarchy. (Contains 15 references.) (SM) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ********************************************************************************


This paper proposes a novel strategy to detect aging in high frequency integrated circuits based on on-line temperature monitoring using built-in differential temperature sensors. To theoretically prove the feasibility of the technique, the paper describes the electro-thermal methodology followed to assert the sensitivity of the temperature sensor's output voltage to track the aging of a 2.4 GHz class A power amplifier.